
Minerva 



ON 



Yachts 



AND 



Yacht Handling 



BY 



THOMAS FLEMING DAY 



S 



NEW YORK AND LONDON: 
The Rudder Publishing Company 



1901 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cowes Received 

APR. 25 1901 

COPVRWHT ENTRY 

CLASS 6bXXc. N». 
COPY B. 



COPYRIGHT, 1901, 

BY 

Thomas Fleming Day 






All Rights Reserved. 



TO THOSE 

WHO HAVE SPENT MANY HOURS WITH ME 

ROUND THE CLUBHOUSE FIRE 



CONTENTS 



On this Book 13 

On Seamanship 19 

On Boats in General .... 37 

On One-man Boats ....... 55 

On Sea-going Boats 67 

On Rigs n ... 81 

On Sail as an Auxiliary 109 

On Reefing 119 

On Anchors and Anchoring 129 

On Rigging 161 

On Stranding 175 



ON THIS BOOK 



" Books were made that man might pass his knowledge 
to his fellows ; through them he speaks to a vast audi- 
ence, and his power to enlighten is only circumscribed 
hy the ability to impart this knowledge in lucid and 
interesting language/' 



M 



ON THIS BOOK 

Y reason for writing this book is, that it is wanted ; 
my excuse, thirty years' experience. In those 
years I have handled many boats, upon many 
waters. 

You will find this book very different from other works 
on the same subject. In the first place, I believe that all 
text-books should be written in a manner to please, as 
well as to instruct ; that they should be agreeable reading; 
and, aside from their teaching value, have a certain excel- 
lence as a writing. Again, there is nothing in literature 
so interesting as the autobiography, real or fictional. 
Nearly all our great works of fiction are of this class. 
Robinson Crusoe's history fro-m any other lips than those 
of the castaway would lose half its interest; Gil Bias in 
the third person would lack warmth and be wholly de- 
void of its peculiar zest. The flavor of the individual is 
lost when you speak for, and not as him. The puppet 

13 



14 

talks like a puppet. It is the difference between John 
Alden pleading the cause of Captain Standish and John 
Alden pleading the cause of Master John. Let a man 
talk to you and he will interest and amuse ; let him write 
for you and he will prove trite and dull. Therefore, when 
imparting information, I like to talk, not write. I want 
to infuse into my words my person, to endeavor to give 
my ideas an I-am-with-you tone, so that it will be me 
and not the book that is present, and with whom you are 
in communion. 

But this method of handling a subject is apt to breed 
dogmatism, especially as the reader is unable to question 
or deny the statements made until they have been 
chilled into ink. So you will find in many of my chapters 
that I am exceedingly dogmatic. It is unintentional, simply 
being a manifestation of the spirit peculiar to this style of 
addressing an audience — one that must hear but cannot 
answer. Therefore let me warn you to question all my 
statements, and to accept only those that harmonize with 
your own conclusions, after you have carefully thought 
them over. Those that you cannot reconcile to your own 
knowledge and experience, lay on one side to be tried out 
at a future day. 



i5 

Never, no matter how high the authority, accept any 
man's coin by its minted face. It is as easy to strike a 
base as a sterling piece, and the king's head on the re- 
verse and his arms on the obverse won't make lead silver, 
or copper gold. This in regard to statements made by 
those who set themselves up as authorities on a subject 
is particularly true, when the subject is one like this 
under discussion; one in which no fixed rules may be 
established, and wliere so much depends upon the man, 
the place and the means. I make a statement of practice ; 
it was deduced from my personal experience, and in my 
case gave a perfect result; you follow it, but owing to 
certain complicating circumstances, in your case, it fails. 
For instance, I tell you, that when a vessel gets sternway 
on in a seaway to keep your helm amidships, and cast 
her with the headsails, and not to put your helm hard 
over. You accept my method as being the correct one, 
try it, and fail to cast your boat so as to fill away. This 
does not prove that I am wrong in making such a state- 
ment, but it shows that I am wrong in not having quali- 
fied it. It also shows that you are a lax thinker in not 
having questioned my method before putting it in practice. 
My error is the too frequent error of men who write on 



i'6 

vessel handling; yours the too common error of men 
who study their books. 

The object of this book, of these talks, is not to fill 
you, parrot fashion, full of rules of action or methods of 
practice, but to furnish you with food for thought; to 
lay before you certain statements from which you must, 
to a large extent, deduce your own conclusions. Take 
what I say, mix it with your own knowledge and ex- 
perience, and put into action the result. 

These talks are not intended for men who are what we 
may call seamen, men who are thoroughly versed in the 
art, nor are they intended for those who aspire to boats 
larger than forty feet over all. A boat above that size 
is too valuable to be trusted in the hands of an inex- 
perienced or half-trained man. The owner of a large 
yacht, if he is not perfectly capable of handling her under 
all conditions, should hire some one who is. My sermons 
are addressed to the man who is learning to handle a 
small vessel, who wants to be a seaman, and who, to be 
free of all paid assistance, is willing to study the art 
thoroughly and make himself master of all its branches. 



ON SEAMANSHIP 



"The tar's a smart tar that can hand, reef and steer, 

That can ninthly cast off and helay ; 
Who in darkest nights finds each halyard and gear, 

*And dead reckoning knows well, and leeway ; 
Tiut the tar to please me must more knowing be." — 

Dibden — (Modernised). 



ON SEAMANSHIP 

1HAVE been all my life a lover of the sea ; an observer 
of its natural and social conditions ; a student of its 
phases and fabrics ; but while my mind in its long 
and wide search has touched upon almost every subject 
connected with ocean life, the one that has constantly in- 
terested and fascinated me is that which relates to the 
Care and government of sailing vessels. This art, which 
is called seamanship, is one of man's oldest and noblest 
attainments. What does the world owe to him who 
possessed it? 

To him the civilization of to-day owes its existence. 
Man cramped in the confines of a continent, a prisoner 
at low-water mark, a dwarf in a dwarf world, was re- 
leased, lifted and enlightened by the Master of the Sail. 
It was he who found the universe upon the sea, and 
brought it home; a free gift, with the more costly but less 
valuable trophies of distant trade. It was he who, 
broadening the world's world, broadened the world's 

19 



20 



mind. With the spices and silks of the East, with the 
gold and tobaccos of the West, he laded his ships with 
the new knowledge, a commodity that paid no revenues 
to the crown, that added nothing to the wealth and glory 
of princes, but, flowing slowly and steadily into the minds 
of men, incited the intelligent few to broader, nobler and 
more splendid achievements, and filtering through the 
masses, long steeped in inveterate ignorance, uplifted, en- 
riched and regenerated all. 

In the shadow of his sail hamlets became cities ; wealth 
increased, suffering diminished. In his callous hands, 
the he'lm, that through daylight and darkness guided his 
vessel from land to land, was more marvelous in its 
powers than the famed ivory wand of the Eastern genii ; 
and to all who sought to receive, his sail bore more 
jewels than ever burdened the magic carpet, or came 
into the hands of the daring and fortunate through the 
incantations of the Sons of the Hidden Light. While 
with one hand he struggled with chaffering Trade for her 
sordid coin, with the other be threw into the laps of 
Science and Art innumerable treasures. Impartial in his 
generosity as. in his gifts, he gave to Astronomy new 
constellations, to Medicine rare and efficacious herbs, to 



21 



Art fresh and invigorating colors, and to Literature a 
strange breed of heroes, novel situations and unfamiliar 
plots. 

The freedom that he found upon the high seas he 
brought back to cheer the slaves of the mart. Kings 
bargained for his services, nobles and merchants offered 
their purses to assist in his ventures. In return for three 
paltry vessels he presented Spain with an empire; to 
prove a chimera false he perished among the northern 
ices. No sea was too broad to daunt him ; no land was 
too distant to escape his search. The miseries he endured, 
the hardships he underwent, were forgotten in the joys 
of a new discovery. He opened roads of -trade that 
brought riches and power to his country, and sprinkled 
these pathways with the bones of his companions — vic- 
tims of exposure, famine and disease. 

No reef lifts above the water, no shallow spreads its 
treacherous sands, but the frames of his vessel have been 
broken upon it. The hurricane and calm have 'taken toll 
of him ; he has paid the penalty of recklessness and greed. 
He has given to the annals of war its most desperate and 
bloody conflicts ; he has perished that nations might live, 
and that a people might be free. 



22 

His life gave him strength and endurance ; his art made 
him skillful and courageous. He created and used a 
language of his own, and his customs were not those of 
other men. The inventor of the sail, the user of the 
elements, the discoverer, the trader, the protector, the 
world's benefactor — the seaman. 

A noble art makes noble men, and there is no nobler art 
than seamanship. As free and changeful in its measures 
as are the elements it employs and combats, it is prolific 
of resource, fertile in expedient, and a prompter of mental 
activity. Tt promotes skill of hand and tenacity of mus- 
cle. Courage is bred in its duties, and the mind broad- 
ens in its services. 

It is this that makes the practice of seamanship so val- 
uable to those who employ it only as a pastime. The 
care and handling of the sailing vessel furnishes most 
excellent training for the young. Aside from the skill it 
imparts, it takes men out into the open air; it offers to 
those whom the obligations of life keep at the counter 
and desk an opportunity to be free, to get away from and 
completely out of the business world. It gives the mart- 
worn mind a change and a' rest. The sea has no post- 
men; no telegraph messengers. It prints no newspa- 



*3 

pers. The feet of society merely tread its borders. It is 
a place where man is really free, and where he can real- 
ize his freedom. 

Many have written upon this art. Some of these 
works are an addition to literature and of value to the 
seaman, but the majority are not. On that branch of sea- 
manship, which we will call yachtmanship, and which is 
principally the art of sparring, rigging, canvasing and 
handling fore-and-aft vessels, there has been penned sev- 
eral large works and many small ones. The standard 
books are by Vanderdecken and Kemp, and the majority 
of the others, I am sorry to say, are in the most part 
copies of these two. In some cases the authors have 
lifted their information bodily, and have forgotten to ac- 
knowledge the indebtedness. While standard works of 
their time, both Vanderdecken and Kemp are now out 
of date, and, moreover, they deal largely with big vessels, 
and vessels of a type no longer employed in yachting. 

Among the smaller works there are several good ones, 
but they lack originality and do not properly cover the 
ground, nor do they contain the information which is 
most necessary to the beginner. Again, many of them 
have been written by men wbo are enslaved by one type, 



24 

and are therefore considerably biased; others are from 
the pen of those who have had a special and not a general 
experience. 

But the crowning defect of all these books, to my 
mind, is that the authors in the portion relating to hand- 
ling try to teach a man, instead of prompting him, to 
learn. You cannot teach a man to sail — he may learn. 
In order to do so he must have the sailor instinct. Un- 
less he has that he will never become a seaman. That is 
why some men can never learn to handle a boat, and why 
others will pick up the knowledge in a few months. 

Again, there are many men who learn to sail a boat; 
that is, become possessed of so much knowledge as will 
permit of their working a vessel from place to place, but 
yet never succeed in mastering the nicer or more difficult 
points of seamanship. These are the parrots of the pro- 
fession — men who simply repeat what they see other men 
do. The skillful seaman is the man who thinks, who 
studies his profession, and who learns from his own ex- 
perience what he cannot from the practice of others. 

It is often said that experience is 'the great teacher. 
To be sure it is; but even experience cannot teach one 
who will not learn. The most intense and varied expe- 



25 

rience is of no use to one who casts it aside without first 
fitting it into place in his life's record by turning it over 
and over in his mind. Spasmodic storage of experience 
is of no use whatever; it must be sorted, checked up, 
ticketed and stored away in its proper place in the next 
bin to that which it joins in the sequence of events. Un- 
less this is done it will not be forthcoming when needed. 

Properly arranged and stored, experience is the mother 
of what is called "presence of mind, ,, the most necessary 
mental part for a seaman to possess. Without it he will 
be a menace to his own safety and a threat of danger to 
others. Presence of mind is simply applied forethought. 
You do in an emergency without apparent reflection the 
right thing, and save your boat, your life, or somebody 
else's life. People who see the act, exclaim, "What won- 
derful presence of mind!" but would be more correct, if 
Ihey exclaimed, "What perfect presence of plan!" You 
have simply executed at a moment's notice a plan of ac- 
tion that been stored away in your mind, perhaps for 
years. 

When a boy, I frequently amused myself when skating 
by thinking out what I would do if a person fell through 
the ice. I pictured all possible situations and methods of 



26 

rescue. One day the accident happened ; a boy in skat- 
ing across the head of a pond broke through the thin 
ice formed where the river entered the lake. From the 
hundred skaters present a yell of terror went up, and, as 
was the case when the immortal Mr. Pickwick met with 
a similar accident at Dingley Dell, everybody called for 
help, and nobody offered it. Though at some distance, 
my attention was drawn to the mishap by these cries. 
Instantly I responded. There was no mental preparation, 
no reflection; the proper plan flashed into my acting 
mind. I executed it, and the boy was saved. 

Now, if I had not had that plan stored in my mind, I 
should have been just as much at sea as the rest were. 
I should probably have joined them in shouting for a 
plank or rope, or, like Mr. Tupman, have cried fire, or 
performed some other senseless act, such as people do 
when brought suddenly face to face with a dangerous 
emergency. 

One day when running down wind I said to the young 
fellow at the wheel, who was anxious to learn the sea- 
man's trade, "What would you do if one of us fell over- 
board ?" "I don't know," he answered. "Haven't you 
ever thought, planned out, what you would do in such 



27 

an emergency ?" No, he hadn't. "Well/' I said, "you 
think it out; put the boat in different positions and under 
different sail, and plan out what you would do if such 
an accident happened/' A day or two after, while the 
same lad was at the wheel, we lost the dingey. Without 
calling me from below or hesitating, he wore round and 
recovered the boat, executing the manoeuvre in so clever 
a manner as to call praise from all the old hands. When, 
shortly after, I relieved him at the wheel, he said, "I 
thought that out the other day after you spoke about 
what to do if a man falls overboard." 

Again, I was on the bridge of a steamer chatting with 
the mate. "What do you do to pass away the long night 
watches ?" I asked him. "Well," he answered, "I spend 
hours thinking and planning out what I would do if cer- 
tain things happened. I put the ship into every possible 
danger — fire, collision, shifting cargo, broken shaft, and 
unexpected land. I then plan how best to meet the 
emergency created. I place other ships in every position 
— green to port, red to starboard, lights dead ahead, 
lights on the beam, lights everywhere — then plan to work 
my ship clear of them. I have some run into me, am 
sinking, lower boats, save my own crew and rescue oth- 



28 

ers. I pick up lame ducks, pass hawsers, make fast and 
tow them in. Everything that could possibly happen I 
have happen, and plan the ways and means of meeting 
them over and over again. That is how I while away mv 
eight hours in the scuppers. " 

There was a seaman who had prepared himself for an 
emergency ; a commander who had ready for instant use 
a plan, so, let occasion demand it, he could stand forth 
the man of the hour. 

Let me advise you who would learn the seaman's art 
to copy that mate. Spend your idle hours thinking and 
planning. Never go into a difficult channel without first 
picturing what dangers may confront you, and how you 
can overcome them. Never pass through a fleet or come 
to anchor among vessels without planning beforehand 
your mode of action. Never turn in at night without first 
looking about you and outlining in your mind your po- 
sition in regard to shore and craft, and forming a plan 
for getting away if anything should happen to oblige you 
to make sail. After a little practice this thinking ahead 
will become second nature, and your brain will plan and 
act with the regularity and cheerfulness of a good clock. 
The backbone of active seamanship is confidence — con- 



2 9 

fidence in yourself, confidence in your craft, confidence 
in your crew. The first and most necessary of these is 
confidence in yourself. Without it the place for you is 
on shore, or in a subordinate position. No man should 
attempt to command who has shaken confidence in his 
own skill and judgment. I mean by confidence the true 
article, not the false, which is more commonly called con- 
ceit 

Confidence is inspired by action and confirmed by suc- 
cess. You attempt a feat such as you have never at- 
tempted before and are successful, therefore you are sure 
that the skill or knowledge you used in performing it is 
reliable, and that you are possessed of a mastery over it 
sufficient to enable you to repeat the act. In plain Eng- 
lish, you are sure you can do it again. 

Let us suppose it is a feat of navigation. By yourself 
you have never taken a yacht out of sight of land, but, 
having the opportunity, decide to attempt to run from 
one point to another across an open stretch of sea. You 
take the chart, find the magnetic course and distance, 
allow for leeway and current, and having 'thus found 
your compass course put the ship on it, and away you go. 
Land soon drops down astern, and you begin to feel a 



3° 

bit shaky. Suppose you have made a mistake in laying 
off the course ; not allowed enough for leeway, too much 
for current. Suppose you should miss the distant cape. 
This and a dozen other things begin to haunt your mind. 
You go below, out with the chart, pass over your figures, 
remeasure the distance, get the same result for compass 
course — we will say N. E. by E.^E. You go back on 
deck confident that your course and distance are correct, 
and then begin to worry about the compass. You are 
sure it was correct yesterday, because you took several 
bearings and found it so, and it was also correct two 
weeks before, on your last cruise. Then you reason that 
it is very unlikely that it would go waltzing off into an 
excessive error just because it happened to have been 
taken out of sight of land for the first time, and so give it 
back your confidence and steer away N. E. by E.J4E. 

Your crew now begin to worry, never having been out 
of sight of land before. They look at you as though 
they suspected you of contemplating their murder. They 
walk around uneasily, search the horizon ahead, and cast 
regretful glances at the one astern, pay repeated visits to 
the log and act generally like a set of condemned victims. 
Your confidence under this condition begins to wilt 



3i 

again. You take the log index, go below, and find that 
your passage is half made. You show this to the crew, 
and they appear half satisfied and half doubtful, despite 
your assumed air of implicit faith. They seem to know 
that your face is acting, and that your stomach is not 
backing up the play. Just then the helmsman calls out 
that a steamship is in sight ahead. The smoke-boat ap- 
proaches rapidly, running almost on the back-bearing 
to the one your craft is on — S. W. by W., as near as you 
can make it. As she draws near you recognize her as a 
coaster running between the place you are bound to and 
the place you have left. Here is positive evidence that 
you are on the right track. You strut round the cock- 
pit with the airs of an admiral, and the timid members of 
your crew shrink into their lower garments. 

But a few hours after passing the steamer, night 
comes on, and it begins to blow and get nasty. You call 
all hands, reef down, and thus check your speed, so that 
instead of making six knots you are only doing four. 
Then the wind hauls a bit more forward, and you have 
to flatten-in your sheets. This increases your leeway, 
and you decide to allow another point for it — making 
your course N. E., y 2 E. Then you wonder if that is 



32 

enough, and again begin to worry. By this time your 
crew have accepted their fate, and are in a profound state 
of despair, beyond even a murmur of insubordination, do- 
ing their work slowly and sullenly, as though every act 
was a part of a preparation to commit suicide. 

Down to the chart you go again ; pass over the course, 
and pricking off the distance, find that you are by your 
reckoning still twenty miles from the landfall you expect 
to make. The light on it is visible fifteen miles. Laying 
out this on the chart, you see that you can hardly miss 
hitting that big circle, and are somewhat assured. Nov/ 
the wind falls light, and instead of being within the range 
of visibility of the light in an hour or so, it is three before 
the log says you have run far enough. You carefully 
search the horizon for it. No light is visible. A cold 
sweat begins to break out. You are lost — lost at sea. 
You must have allowed too little for leeway and have 
passed far outside of the light. What had you better do, 
keep your course, or haul up? After thinking it over, 
and again consulting the chart, you decide to hold the 
course for an hour longer. How slowly that hour drags 
away! At its expiration the log shows three and one-half 
miles more. You are now by your reckoning eleven and 



33 

one-half miles from the light. Certainly you must see it. 
A long search with the glass ; no light. You decide to 
haul up and try for it to the north'rd and west'rd, but 
before doing so have one more look. Hello! there it is, 
a point on the starboard bow. That's the light, sure 
enough. It flashes ; you count ten seconds, fifteen sec- 
onds, darkness ; again it flashes ten seconds. "Light ho!" 
you shout. 

Has your log overrun that amount? You decide it 
has ; but a few minutes later the light is lost again. That 
settles it — fog or mist inshore; the log is all right. So 
you stand boldly on, your whole mind aglow with the 
triumph you have just achieved — that of making a good 
landfall. The drama of Columbus at San Salvador is re- 
played, you taking the part of the great admiral, and 
your crew that of the conscience-stricken mutineers. You 
wonder why they ever doubted your skill and knowledge, 
forgetting that you doubted yourself. 

The next day your crew strut proudly about the port 
like a lot of mariners just returned from circumnavigating 
the globe. They are proud of you, proud of their vessel, 
and very proud of themselves. But what a change it has 
worked in you! You are a very different man to-day 



34 

from what you were the hour you took your departure 
to make that passage. To-day you have confidence in 
your skill and knowledge, and in yourself as a user of 
those powers. 

I have written that little sketch to show you that know- 
ing how to hand, reef and steer is not all that is needed 
to make a seaman. The knowledge of the methods of 
working sails and ship are only a part of the seaman's 
craft. His head as well as his hand must be trained. 
He must not only know his vessel thoroughly, but he 
must as thoroughly know himself. 



ON BOATS IN GENERAL 



"Is it come? ' ' they said, on the banks of the Nile, 

Who looked for the world's long-promised boat, 
zAnd saw that the lines he had drawn on a tile 

Would make a good cruiser — // // would float, 
Thro' pyramids, temples, and mummies stuffed, 

We vainly search for this ideal plan ; 
We fear the Hurgess of Pharaoh's bluffed — 

Yet there was hope when that day began. 



M 



ON BOATS IN GENERAL 

EN frequently come to me, and ask, "What sort of a 
boat would you recommend me to have?" My 
reply always is, ' 'What for?" In that small phrase 
is contained the kernel of selection — what for? Do you 
want to cruise, go day-sailing, or race? Do you want it 
to go alone, or with a crew? Do you want to sail in 
rough or smooth water? 

A boat that is suitable for cruising is not the thing for 
racing or day-sailing ; a boat that would fill the , bill if 
used on land-locked waters would make a poor showing 
on an open sea or in rough stretches of tide-swept chan- 
nel. 

Let us first consider the racing craft. Racing, as I 
have often told you, is a business, not a pastime. If you 
want to win, and those who race usually do-, you must 
subordinate everything to that want. If you don't, you 
will never be a successful mug hunter. A racing boat 

37 




Knockabout 



39 

must be built as lightly as the law allows. This not only 
means that her frame and planking must be kept down 
to eights, but she must be looted of everything that the 
rules will permit you to remove. She must have large, 
well-made and consequently expensive sails. Her gear 
must be of the finest and strongest make, and it must be 
kept up to the top notch of perfection by constant super 
vision and repair. 

Then you must give up all below comforts and consent 
to live on bare necessities. You must forego all other 
pleasures and concentrate all your faculties on one thing 
— your boat. If you are willing to do this, and have the 
racing skipper eye and hand, you may pull out all right 
on top. 

If, instead of racing, you just want a boat to knock 
round in during the day, your craft is far more easily 
chosen and secured. You won't have to r.ead up several 
volumes of restrictions and rules, you won't have to nose 
through half a dozen classes to find the one in which the 
easiest-to-beat crowd harbor, before making up your 
mind and giving out your order. You can just suit your- 
self as to how long, how wide and how deep your craft 
is to be. 




Cape Cat 



4i 

A boat for day-sailing wants to be of strong and rea- 
sonable light construction. She needs much more cock- 
pit than cabin, and if the latter is of the summer variety 
it will be far more comfortable and convenient. All boats 
should have some sort of a cuddy or cabin, especially if 
they are to be used to take out women and children. 

A day-sailing boat, if to be used for taking out shore 
people, should be absolutely uncapsizable and, if possi- 
ble, fitted with tanks of sufficient power to float the bal- 
last. Her rig should be simple, and her canvas of moder- 
ate expanse. The less gear and gewgaws she has about 
her the better, as it means a saving of work at all times, 
and especially in getting underway and coming to an- 
chor. 

The two best rigs for this class of boat are the cat and 
knockabout. Both these rigs are quick and easy to 
handle, and having no bowsprit, they can be brought up 
to a landing anywhere where there is water enough to 
float them. 

There is no better day-sailing boat in the world than 
the cat that is used along our Eastern seaboard to take 
out fishing and sailing parties. I don't mean the over- 
canvased brute that is frequently met — a vessel that takes 




Racing Pole-Mast Sloop 



43 

all hands to steer, and a double watch to shorten down, 
but the properly sparred and balanced boat. I have 
handled many of these boats, and under our ordinary 
summer conditions have found them to do what was ex- 
pected of them in a boatly manner. In skillful hands they 
are as near being absolutely safe as it is possible for any 
water-borne fabric to be. One of their chief advantages 
is that they can be got under sail or be relieved of it 
quicker than any other type. They have but one sheet 
and two halliards to look after, and all these can be 
tended by one hand without leaving the cockpit. 

The knockabout has many of the cat's good qualities, 
and is in some respects a better rig, but the jib is apt to 
be a nuisance at times. The disadvantage of the knock- 
about is that, being a narrower model than the cat, you 
are cramped for room where it is most needed — aft. Ow- 
ing to this latter rig being in fashion, the cat has fallen out 
of favor, but there is no better boat for the young sailor 
to begin his studies in. An open cat — that is, one half- 
decked, say of sixteen feet length — is just the thing for a 
boy to learn the sailor's trade in. 

Now for the cruiser, and its name is legion. But out 
of the lot there are more bad than good ones to be 



44 

picked. A cruiser, in the first place, is a house — a home 
for days, and perhaps weeks and months. Therefore, she 
must furnish sleeping and eating accommodations. This 
means room to stretch and stand, or at least sit upright. 
A cruiser in which a man cannot live in comfort is no 
cruiser. 

Then first, in selecting a cruiser, the accommodation 
must be looked to ; that is why when a man who knows 
anything starts to buy one he invariably puts the ques- 
tion," What is her head room?" The answer generally tells 
the w r hole story. The next important query is, "What is 
her draught ?" the third, "What is her rig?" 

Unless you can sit up and lie down comfortably the 
the boat is no cruiser; you can at once make up your 
mind to that. While no man expects to spend the greater 
part of his time below, the time he does spend below is 
that in which he seeks rest, and must get it; this is im- 
possible in cramped quarters. 

The importance of the draught depends largely upon 
where you want to sail and harbor. Your draft should 
never exceed the low-water depth of the channel you 
have to pass through in order to reach your anchorage. 
In our northern waters three feet is the minimum draught 



45 

required; in southern waters less is almost necessary. 
In some localities three feet is the maximum draught. 
Short draught has the disadvantage of forcing the bulk of 
the boat above the water line, and the making of high 
houses, in order to get head room. This produces a 
boat that offers considerable resistance to the wind, and 
consequently makes excessive leeway. They are also 
unsteady at anchor, and hard on the ground tackle. 

Deep draught cuts you out from many harbors and 
sheltering places, and in getting from port to port along 
shore frequently obliges you to take the* longest way 
round, but it has the advantage of giving a firm hold on 
the water and of keeping the weights and windages down 
low. But, as in everything, there is a happy medium— a 
betwixt and between. 

It may be stated that for all reasonable purposes on a 
cruising boat of 40 feet and under to be used on our 
coast, a draught of five feet is sufficient. All over that will 
prove a cause of worry and a hindrance to pleasant voy- 
aging. With this draught you can pass into nearly all our 
bar harbors and navigate with safety among the shoals 
in our sounds and channels. I prefer to limit my draught 




Cutter Rig 



47 

to three feet, but then it is my peculiar pleasure to sail 
where other men seldom venture. 

It is difficult to get a weatherly keel boat on four or 
even five feet draught. A boat to be good to windward 
must have a deep plane of resistance. This makes it 
almost impossible to dispense with the centerboard in 
small boats. But as soon as you admit this contrivance 
into your plans you partly spoil your accommodations. 
Many designers have tried to get round this by com- 
bining the two forms. Putting in a half board that 
houses in the keel and does not come above the floor. 
Such of these as I have seen have proved to be poor 
makeshifts, and the result is the spoiling of what would 
have been a good keel boat. 

While fully aware of its disadvantages, I am a firm be- 
liever in the centerboard for small cruising boats. That 
it weakens a vessel there is no doubt, but with the modern 
method of building the trunk the injury to the fabric is 
very slight. The saying that "A centerboard boat al- 
ways leaks" is more fact than fiction, but in several 
modern yachts that I have cruised in this is not so, the 
trunk having been constructed in such a way as to resist 
the strains which are the cause of leakage. 



4 8 

Now to return to the subject of accommodations. A 
cruising boat should be of such shape as will give the 
largest interior possible in a given length. In this the 
older type of yacht was far superior to the modern. In 
the boats of to-day a man pays for a great deal of hull that 
is of no use to him, except for looks and speed. Thelong 
overhangs provide plenty of deck room, but they add 
nothing to the cabin and but little to the storage space. 
In an up-to-date boat all that is habitable is the middle 
third. In such a craft, 30 feet over all, you can get but 10 
feet for cabin. I have seen a 40-foot boat, which was ad- 
vertised as a good cruiser, in which there was sleeping 
room for two. Compare this with the accommodations 
furnished by an old-fashioned plumb-ender, or with a 
Cape cat. One of these latter of 20 feet has more room 
than a modern 30-footer of the up-to-date model. 

The extreme overhangs are all right in racing craft, 
but they are a detriment and a danger in cruising craft. 
The same may be said of the extreme full bow. There 
never was, and probably never will be, a set of ends 
better adapted for all-around work than those carried by 
the boats of twenty years ago, as shown in Minerva and 



49 

yachts of her day. This is what is known as the half- 
clipper or schooner bow. 

In boats of this type there is sufficient overhang to 
prevent their diving and to give them sufficient buoyancy 
to lift easily over a sea, at the same time the ends are not 
long enough to trip the vessel if running in large water. 
Again, the entrance and run are sharp enough to fall with- 
out pounding — a disagreeable habit that full modern 
boats are possessed of. The most serious objection to 
the modern boat with full and long overhangs is that it 
will not lay-to in heavy water bow-on. Just as soon as 
you put it to the wind and check its headway it will fall 
off in a trough and work around stern to the sea, a 
very dangerous proceeding. It is a splendid runner, and 
remarkably dry when so engaged; in fact, it seldom ships 
solid water when going either on or off the wind, and is 
less liable to pooping than the older types, but when 
brought to face a sea it pounds and sags and is exceed- 
ingly uncomfortable. To one who has never experienced 
the sensation it is impossible to picture the punishment 
these full-bowed vessels receive when driven against a 
head sea. This pounding brings a terrible strain on the 
spars and rigging and is very wearying to the crew. I 




Jib and Mainsail Cruising Boat 



5i 

have known a sea striking under the stern of one of these 
boats to throw the crew off their feet, badly injuring one 
man. The mate of a large English yacht who had crossed 
the Bay of Biscay in her on the way to Gibraltar told me 
that he had never in all his sea experience had such a ter- 
rible knocking about. Every man on board was a mass 
of bruises when the vessel made port, and the copper 
was torn off her bows back for eight or ten feet. Yet 
this boat's bow was nothing like so full as that of many 
of our yachts of to-day. 

If you go to the other extreme, and cut all end off a 
boat, giving her a straight up and down stem, she is a bad 
runner and very, very wet. The cutters of this type 
were most uncomfortable sea boats, being constantly 
deluged, but they would eat out to windward in heavy 
weather and lie-to a sea like birds. Between these two 
there is the end which is the one for the cruiser to,.use 

The ideal end is one that will lift and lower slowly, 
allowing the vessel to fall and rise without jarring or jerk- 
ing. This sort of end will, when falling, bring a vessel 
slowly to when the extreme point of the fall is reached. 
With the plumb stem a vessel is apt to go too far, delug- 
ing the decks, and in one with the full long bow, not far 



52 

enough, jarring the whole fabric by suddenly checking 
the motion. It is of course impossible to have absolutely 
perfect ends on a vessel, as concessions have to be made 
to other purposes, but the ends of the majority of our 
modern yachts are decidedly bad for rough-water work. 
Another serious defect in many cruising boats is want 
of freeboard. There is no excuse for this. A low-sided 
boat is wet and uncomfortable, both inside and out. You 
see many boats of this description with scant freeboard 
and excessively high houses. The only object to be 
gained by keeping the freeboard down is to reduce the 
windage and weight, important items in racing craft, but 
of little matter in a cruiser. Farther on, in speaking of 
handling in rough water, I shall explain the advantages 
of freeboard. 



ONE-MAN BOATS 



'?Alone, alone, all, all alone, 
cAlone on a wide, wide sea! ' 

Coleridge. 



ON ONE-MAN BOATS 

THIS is a subject upon which volumes of rot have 
been written by men who ought to have known 
better. We can forgive a man of no experience for 
writing absurdly upon a subject, but when those who have 
had experience in handling craft alone come out in print 
in advocacy of an utterly unsuitable type of vessel it is 
about time for somebody to call them down. It is the 
books of such men that have made common the idea 
that the single-hander's vessel must be a sort of en- 
larged toy boat; in consequence, whenever a single- 
hander is pictured, it is of that type. 

The principal cause of this error is that the men who 
have taken charge of the task of disseminating informa- 
tion regarding the single-hander are of a class that, as 
a class, look upon small things as making big things and 
not as big things being made of small things. Conse- 
quently they give more importance to any part than they 

55 






Single-Hander 



57 

do to the whole. Then they are the servants of an idea ; 
this once firmly fixed they distort all out-doors to fit it. 
All evidence to confirm is at once admitted, while just 
as quickly the door is shut in the face of whatever does 
not go to prove their first and final conception to be 
correct. 

Almost every man I know of who has contributed to 
the literature of the single-hander has first sat by the 
fireside and designed a craft and then built and sailed it 
to prove that it is the only perfect thing. 

Go over a fleet of this kind; what are they? Either 
big toy boats or small copies of large vessels. While they 
may perfectly fit the theory and be theoretically perfect, 
they are practically of no use, or else inferior in many 
ways to a boat of the same dimensions designed by ex- 
perience. The earliest types of these boats were closely 
moulded upon the lines of fishing craft, being models 
built to withstand the rough usage of that trade, and 
suited to oar and sail alike. That a craft like this matured 
in a rough locality is the best for its purpose is frequently 
true, but that it is best for another purpose is as fre- 
quently false. 

This is an error common to many who have advocated 



58 

some local type of boat for universal use. Having em- 
ployed it successfully in certain waters, they imperatively 
assert that it will suit all waters, and having found it to 
answer one purpose, they are equally certain that it will 
answer all. It is the old story of the blind men and the 
elephant — that of forming a compound conclusion from 
a single observation. 

If a man cruise, and cruise without assistance, the first 
important thing is that his craft be one that he can handle 
without excessive muscular strain. Therefore she must 
not be heavy for her size, and her gear must be of- such 
weight as will readily permit of his working it. The 
gear must be simple and of strength ; the rig one that 
needs the least attention. This is exactly what the typi- 
cal single-hander is not. 

The typical single-hander is a coarse-lined, heavily 
built craft, with complicated gear and divided canvas. 
She is generally very full-bodied and badly overloaded 
with ballast. Her initial stability is great, and her helm 
action slow. This is the type of craft advocated by 
nearly all who have written on this subject. One of the 
prime virtues of this type in the eyes of single-hander 
writers, is, that such craft are good sea boats. A few 



59 

years ago boats of this description were more common 
than they are to-day, but many are still afloat. The 
favorite rig is that of cutter or yawl. 

These boats are safe — that is, they seldom capsize 1 — and 
are good sea boats, if simple ability to float in rough 
water constitutes a good sea ; but they are slow, awkward 
to handle, and utterly unable to make way in rough 
water and heavy winds. 

Off the wind in all weather they move slowly and 
steer badly and in light breezes are logs. One of these 
boats that I handled would yaw four points either way 
when running off in a folio-wing sea, and when close- 
hauled in a blow would lie down and sag off bodily to lee- 
ward. It was utterly impossible to get her to windward 
except under conditions of a smooth sea and steady 
breeze, weather in which any vessel will do her best. 

I remember once seeing a small cutter-rigged, single- 
hander trying for several hours to beat round Matini- 
cock Point against a head sea and wind. This vessel, 
which was built after the plans of a celebrated single- 
hander's boat, was a failure on every point of sailing. 
Another time we passed a small cutter off Saybrook ; she 
was jumping up and down and chopping waves at a 



6o 

great rate. Our consort, who had passed the same point 
two hours before, reported speaking the yacht in almost 
the same position, and no doubt she would be there yet 
if the wind and tide had not shifted and lifted her in. 

The essential element of safety in all vessels is the 
power to move forward under all conditions of weather. 
This is especially so of a sailing craft. There must also 
be a perfect and rapid obedience to the helm. A slow- 
moving or sluggish craft is a dangerous one. The smaller 
the vessel the more true this is. 

The other element of safety is the mobility of the rig. 
The ability to make, reduce and shift sail rapidly is es- 
sential to safety. This is only possible when the sails and 
spars are proportioned to the strength of those manipu- 
lating them, and the gear of the simplest and most direct 
description. The over subdividing of canvas is bound to 
complicate the gear; the keeping of the canvas in large 
sails to make the spars heavy and unwieldy. 

The most perfect type of boat and rig for one man to 
handle is the cat — in theory ; but in practice it fails in 
many ways. If the weather was a constant it would be the 
ideal rig. But winds are changeable things in all locali- 
ties. So long as a cat can carry her whole sail comfort- 



6i 

ably she is the safest and most easily handled rig in 
existence ; but once reef her and she forfeits much of her 
ability. Then again, in strong winds, she is a bad run- 
ner, and her sail being large and well outboard she is 
difficult to reef. For windward work under favorable 
conditions the cat is unrivaled, and as a one-man boat 
she is for some purposes without a peer. But I do not 
recommend the rig for single-handed cruising. 

Let us next consider the sloop. This is, except for 
very small craft, an inferior rig for the purpose to the 
cat, it having all the latter's faults without any other ad- 
vantages to compensate. In single-handers under 20 
feet top measure the sloop rig will work very decently. 
But it is decidedly inferior to the knockabout, for the 
reason that in order to expand its canvas both the boom 
and bowsprit must be carried outboard. This latter rig, 
if kept down to reasonable proportions, is better than 
either cat, sloop or cutter for single-handers under 30 
feet top measure. But all these three rigs have the one 
objectionable feature, that in order to reef the boat must 
either leave her course or be hove-to while the operation 
is performed, a serious disadvantage under rough con- 
ditions. 



62 



In a full-manned vessel, reefing, when the proper 
method is employed, is a simple affair, but reefing by one 
hand is always a long and troublesome job. If the vessel 
cannot be kept on her course and is brought to the wind 
the work is made much more difficult owing to the roll- 
ing and pitching. Not only is this the case, but it is very 
often dangerous to venture on a bowsprit at such a time 
or to hang out over the stern in order to secure the 
cringle-lashing. Any one who has reefed a jib when the 
boat is head to the wind and pitching into a steep sea 
will not deny this. Last summer in reefing down, owing 
to the weight of the wind, I was obliged to take the sail 
completely off my boat, as it was impossible to knot the 
points with the canvas straining ; losing her way, she fell 
off into the trough of the sea, which was running very 
large, and rolled so heavily that she threw all hands off 
their feet. We could do nothing but hold on until at last 
we were obliged to run her off under the peak and reef 
her running. This manoeuvre cost us a good two miles 
of hard-won weather gauge. 

The three best rigs for single-man handling are the 
ketch, yawl or sharpie, or double cat, as it is sometimes 
called. The advantages of the yawl and ketch rig I have 



63 

explained in another chapter. The double cat is also fairly 
good, but its chief objection is that the stepping of the 
foremast in the eyes of the boat makes it close work for- 
ward and the lack of a bowsprit increases the work of 
handling the anchor. 

As to the size of a single-hander. I have handled boats 
of 35 feet, top measure alone, but it was labor ; the 
ground tackle for such a craft being a big lift for one 
man. The only advantage of a long boat is the increased 
speed and accommodation, but the latter is generally not 
wanted. 

I would recommend for this purpose a boat of not 
over 30 feet — 25 is better — and of either yawl or ketch rig 
A moderate sail plan, light spars and strong rigging, 
the iron work especially being extra heavy . The hull, 
while strongly built, should be clean-lined, and, above all, 
stiff. and weatherly. The last is the prime necessity. She 
must be capable of going to windward under any set of 
sail. At least half her ballast should be inside, firmly 
secured. She should steer with a wheel. 

We can summon all this up in one sentence, that will 
concisely describe the ideal single-hander: A fast hull 
and a small rig. 




Full-Rigged Schooner 



ON SEAGOING BOATS 



"The sea and the wind are not our enemies. They 
seldom destroy our vessels without our connivance. It 
is our own folly, neglect or carelessness, that opens the 
way for the attack. 



ON SEAGOING BOATS 

THE first and absolute necessity of a seagoing boat is 
freeboard; the second is a complete deck and 
water-tight openings. Given these two things and 
you have an almost safe craft. There is no question of 
capsizing a well-designed yacht of to-day by power of 
the wind. Our outside ballasted boats cannot be kept 
wrong side up, so long as the water is kept out of them. 
They may be hove down on their sides and fill and sink, 
but they cannot be turned completely over so long as 
they retain their buoyancy. I have been in one of them, 
a boat carrying only about half the usual weight of lead 
for a vessel of her size, that was laid on her side in a 
squall with both mainsail and jib in the water; she re- 
mained in this position for nearly two minutes, and then 
righted when the force of the squall was spent. Her lead 
kept her from turning right over, and her large free- 
board kept her from edging down. She simply made a 

6 7 



68 

bottom of her side and floated on it. That is one ad- 
vantage of freeboard. Had she been a narrow-sided 
boat she would have been forced between the pressure of 
lead and wind deeper into the water, but as it was her 
displacement, owing to the bearing up of the sail and 
mast, was probably less when in that position than when 
standing upright. 

Again, freeboard increases the range of heel. This 
is of enormous advantage when sailing in a sea way with 
a strong breeze. The tripping power of tne wave is ex- 
hausted before the rail is brought down, and the boat not 
receiving a load of water on her lee deck rights so much 
quicker. A low-sided boat when canted by a beam sea 
edges her rail under and shovels the water up on her 
deck as she recovers. For this reason seagoing craft 
should have their upper freeboard slightly tumbled home. 
Bulwarks and high rails are bad things, and combings 
should be kept well inboard, while raised cabin houses if 
fitted should not be carried too close to the waterways. 
Rails and bulwarks as far aft as the rigging can be raised 
to an advantage, as they prevent the water from coming 
in and not passing out. Water in breaking on board will 
always follow along anything like the side of a house, and 



6 9 

when reaching a break spread in. This is how cockpits 
are so easily filled. The height is suddenly cut down 
from house to combing, and the sea having become 
crowded up to the height of the house in its passage aft, 
when it comes to the low place rushes into tne cockpit. 
If the combing is carried up to the height of the. house 
the water will pass along and go out over the stern. 

Ballasted boats should never go into rough water 
unless they have water-tight cockpits and water-tight 
companions and openings. But a water-tight cockpit, 
unless it is well-scuppered and really self-bailing, is of 
little use. In eight out of ten small yachts the cockpits 
are not, although they pretend to be, self-bailing. They 
will bail perfectly when at anchor. In order to bail 
quickly the floor must be at least ten mches above the 
load water line. Here again freeboard comes in. Again, 
the placing of the scuppers in the forward end of the 
cockpit and their outboard openings under the bilge is 
decidedly wrong. In the first place it keeps the water at 
all times in the forward end of the standing room against 
the cabin, just where you move about; in the second 
every drop that goes out through the lee pipe has to 
force its way against a pressure. Tlvs pressure is also 




A Seagoing Boat 



7i 

constantly driving the water up and into the boat. The 
place for the scuppers is aft with the openings under 
the stern. Here there is constant suction so long as the 
boat is moving ahead, no matter to which side or how 
far she heels. Again, if the floor is sloped aft, whatever 
water is on the standing room will run aft and be out of 
the way, a measure of comfort that those who sail in 
rough water can appreciate. It is not generally known 
but a boat going at speed of four knots and over will, if 
equipped with proper scuppers, siphon, i. e., suck the 
water out. 

Another bad practice of builders is to put stationary 
seats around a cockpit with lockers beneath them. This 
never should be done. You cannot keep them tight, the 
wood being constantly subject to water and sun. Never 
put lockers of any kind in a boat with outboard openings. 
Another bad practice is that of putting in low coripanion 
thresholds. The threshold of the companion should be 
as high or higher than the side of the boat, and should 
on no account, no matter how high the cockpit floor is, 
be on a level with it. The usual manner of constructing 
companion doors is also open to objection. The new 
method in which the door slides down into a recess 



72 

through a rubber-packed joint is far better than the old 
way of closing. Such a door can be made absolutely 
water-tight, and can be opened without being opened. 
This enables you to see into the cabin or out of it with- 
out running the slide back or risking getting a wash 
below by opening the doors. These may seem trivial 
details, but it is the neglect of such to whose account the 
loss of the majority of seagoing vessels must be placed. 
Poor hatches and low, badly protected engine room sky- 
lights are responsible for nearly all the steamships that 
go to sea, and are never heard of again. Keep the water 
out and you can live out anything in the way of sea or 
wind. Let it get in and everything that before made 
your craft seaworthy will be an aid to your ending. Your 
ballast will be a weight to sink you, and the empty space 
that gave you buoyancy so much room to quickly fill 
with water. 

After this, look to your pump. Where is it? In most 
yachts directly amidships, drawing out of a well over the 
lowest part of the keel. Where should it be? In the 
place where it can be used when most wanted — the bilge. 
You must have a means of drawing from the center, so 
you can pump out when at anchor or sailing upright. 



73 

But all pumps should have a bilge intake. It would be 
a very simple matter to make such a connection with a 
cock to cut off the other intakes. How often, when he 
least wants to, has a man to let his boat up, so as to get 
the water amidships for the purpose of pumping it out. 
If he could pump from the bilges this coming up would 
be unnecessary. To kill a boat's way in a heavy beam 
or head sea, so as to get her on her keel, is a dangerous 
artifice ; but it must be done with the pump amidships, if 
you want to get the water out, and keep a dry cabin. 
Every seagoing small yacht should have at least two 
fixed pumps, and a movable one. The fixed pumps 
should be constantly looked to, and the limbers kept 
clean. Never stow inside weight alongside of or over 
the intake, and never allow rubbish to be swept into the 
spaces between the floors. With a good pump a man 
can keep down all the water that will work into a tight 
boat through her bottom, topsides and deck. 

All seagoing yachts should have the rudder post 
boxed up and carried well above the water line. The 
neglect of this is the cause of much leakage. She should 
also have in her rudder blade a boring or rod in which 
to make fast emergency lines or chains. In craft that 



74 

have their rudders well under them a rod must be used, 
but in shallow boats with broad blades a hole bored 
through the outer edge will do. These lines are extreme- 
ly useful when anchored in a sea way; by hauling them 
taut over either quarter you can relieve the strain on the 
head of the post and gear attached to it. In case of a 
breakdown of the quadrant, wheel or post head, you can 
at once take control of the rudder and keep the boat 
under command. 

No boat should go into rough water for a long run un- 
less she have ringbolts aft for the purpose of passing 
boom lashings, and also a fixed boom crotch, or at least 
one that can be made immovable. There is no other way 
of keeping a boom steady when the sail is lowered down. 
You cannot by any possible means do so with lashings, 
unless you can horn it in a crotch. A loose boom is a 
constant menace. Provision also should be made for 
the trysail sheets, and for body lashings for the crew, and 
lashings for the boat, even if you have davits. The prin- 
cipal weak spot in the rigging of a boat that is to be 
driven in heavy water is the bobstay. That piece of rig- 
ging is often carried away in a sea than any other, and 
usually it is the bolt that goes. Look to it, and look to 



75 

it well ; for if it parts, most likely you will lose your mast. 
The only safeguard lies in rigging a preventer stay that 
will set up with a tackle, the fall leading inboard. The 
stay should be of wire rope properly and strongly se- 
cured to the stem. Use either a gun tackle or luff tackle 
— the latter is preferable— and be sure to give it plenty of 
drift. When in use, set it up just scant of the strain, so 
that if the bobstay parts it will catch the strain before the 
spar gets a good spring. In boats that have a forestay 
set up to the stem head there is less likelihood of this ac- 
cident happening; but it is always best to have a pre- 
venter fitted. Make the fall fast around the bitts or mast 
where you can readily get at it, and hold a turn to set 
it up. Seagoing boats should have two shrouds on a 
side and set up with lanyards in preference to rigging 
screws. If you fit the latter, have them about twice the 
size of those ordinarily put on by riggers. She. should 
also have a heavy set of masthead runners and duplicate 
eyes to set them up to, one pair being placed well aft. 
Our modern full-bowed boats are very hard on their 
rigging and spars when in a sea way, and need to be 
heavily ironed. 

Outside of her ordinary sails a seagoing yacht needs a 



7 6 

trysail, a small square sail, and a small jib or staysail, all 
made of heavy canvas. Particular attention should be paid 
to the roping and clews of these sails. It is of no use 
using heavy canvas if the clew irons are frail and the 
rope light. A gaff-headed trysail is better than a jib- 
headed, but it is more bother to set. Care should be 
taken to see that the cleat or ringbolt for the trysail 
sheet is in such a position as will allow the sail to be 
properly sheeted, for a trysail when used for riding must 
set flat, or else it will bang itself to pieces. 

In seagoing craft looks don't count, and therefore be 
not afraid to make all your rigging heavy and strong, and 
wherever possible have a fitting or tackle that can be in- 
stantly made to take the place of one that carries away. 
Always when in rough water or in heavy weather keep 
a vang or down-haul on the peak of the gaff. It is some- 
times the only thing that will bring the sail down, and it 
gives you command of the spar, especially when the 
yacht is rolling heavily. The chafing of gear when in a 
sea way is constant and ruinous. To prevent it a close 
watch must be kept on all ropes where they pass through 
blocks or lie against spars or other ropes. If your hal- 



77 

Hards and sheet remain long in one place they must be 
canvased or armored with some sort of chafing stuff. 

One more important thing. Whenever you get far 
from land, lash the oars and rudder in the dingey. Then 
put in a good long coil of light line, a bucket, a jug or 
breaker of water, and enough food to last for a day or 
two. Lash these in so they cannot get out. Many a life 
has been lost and many a man has suffered horribly be- 
cause these simple precautions have been neglected. 
Something suddenly happens to the yacht ; it is a case of 
boat at once. The crew throw the boat over and jump 
in. Too late they find that the oars are gone or that 
there is no water or food. The bucket and rope are for 
use as a sea anchor. 




Full-Rigged Schooner 



ON RIGS 



"The present tendency of canvasing is to increase the 
number of sails on cruising yachts, and to decrease on 
racing craft. Experience teaches that in both cases we 
are doing the right thing. Ultimate speed is found in 
single sails; ease of handling, safety and mobility in 
divided sail. 



ON RIGS 

IN discussing rigs suitable for cruising we may at once 
dismiss from consideration several that are in com- 
mon use, but which are not adapted for service in 
our waters, or are distinctly inferior by reason of being 
difficult to handle with small and unskillful crews. We 
will, also, dismiss the true cutter rig from our considera- 
tions, as it has almost passed out of use, its place being 
taken by the modern type of single-sticker, which is part 
cutter and part sloop. This combination rig is not in its 
full sparring suitable for boats under forty feet, but when 
stripped of the topmast it is in some ways an excellent 
type. 

We can also drop the cat, and what is called the cat- 
yawl, from our list. The four rigs to which I shall call 
your attention are the pole-mast sloop, yawl, ketch and 
schooner. 
The pole-mast sloop, of which the knockabout is the 

81 



82 

commoner specimen, is an excellent rig for use on a 
cruiser. The difference between the sloop proper and 
the knockabout is in the method of spreading the can- 
vas; in the sloop the canvas is spread fore-and-aft, a 
large percentage being forward of the mast; in the 
knockabout the much greater part of the spread is in the 
mainsail, and the hoist is higher. The tall, narrow-peaked 
mainsail of the latter is its characteristic feature. The- 
jib is small and tacked down to the stem head. 

The disadvantage of this rig is that sufficient canvas 
to drive a heavy, full-bodied boat cannot be spread ; con- 
sequently, a true knockabout is a comparatively roomless 
craft. 

The false knockabout, a bastard craft that is becoming 
very common, is one in which the sail area is increased 
by extending the headsail on a bowsprit, and running 
the boom outboard. 

The pole-mast sloop has many warm advocates, and is 
without question a far better rig than the old sloop, 
hampered with topmast and lofty gear, but it shares with 
all single-masted vessels the faults that are common to 
the type. The most serious of these is, that you cannot 



«3 

shorten sail except by reefing. This can be done with 
the yawl, ketch and schooner rigs. 

I have heard many men, and men of experience, decry 
the yawl rig, giving as their opinion that it is inferior in 
every way to the short-rigged sloop. But I have gener- 
ally found that these men have formed their judgment 
from the actions of one boat, and that failing to confirm 
preconceived opinions they have condemned the type, 
root, bole and branch. 

In an article upon the yawl rig, written some time back, 
I explained one of the reasons why this rig came into 
favor, and why it has lost favor with many who at first 
highly valued it. I cannot do better than reprint these 
remarks : 

It has been said that the worst enemy a man can have 
is his best friend. Howsoever this may be in the world 
of men, it is most certainly so in the world of things, and 
nowhere has unmeasured eulogy of the best friend 
wrought greater havoc than in the case of the yawl rig. 
Unfortunately for the yawl rig, it has been repeatedly 
chosen to drive the craft of the writing lonesome sailor, 
and consequently it has figured to a marked degree in 
yachting literature, and as these writers have lavished 





Yawl Rigs 



85 

upon it page upon page of unqualified praise, the effect 
has been to lift the rig into a singular and prominent 
position, and to surround it with a glamour not the less 
charming because a sparkle of truth concentrates and 
enhances its delusive glitter. 

There is no question but what narratives like those 
penned by the famous single-hand sailor McMillan were 
the cause of the yawl's sudden elevation to favor in 
American waters, and there is no question but what 
some books are responsible for much of the fabulous that 
envelopes the rig. There are few of us who would be 
ready to swallow all that a lover might say in praise of 
his mistress, and yet a man is just as likely to magnify 
the points and virtues of his vessel as he is those of his 
Dulcinea ; therefore we cannot be too careful in accept- 
ing the evidence of the infatuated yachtsman or in 
adopting his finding as infallible precedents. For, often 
carried away by the good behavior of his craft, he 
jumps at a conclusion, attributing to one quantity that 
which should be adjudged to the fabric as a whole. This 
is often the case ; and again, too frequently is the rig of 
the vessel blamed for results which are the sum of de- 





c.TTlv£<r* r E.Tt' 



Yawl Rigs 





Yawl Rigs 



88 

fects altogether foreign to a peculiar sparring and can- 
vasing. 

The unqualified praise which has been lavished on the 
yawl rig has, as is usual, awakened a no less unqualified 
storm of dispraise. While the yawlman has, with that 
noble effrontery which distinguishes the true crank, 
claimed for his favorite rig everything in sight, the re- 
calcitrant unbeliever has as broadly denied it, even those 
common virtues which one supposed to be possessed by 
e\*en the meanest and most primitive craft. 

I have no hesitancy in saying that so far as the driving 
value of the mizzen is concerned it is an unimportant 
quantity. This is especially so when on the wind. On 
most of the yawls I have handled there has been good 
cause for this. In the first place, the boomkins were too 
short, and the other spars too light. You cannot 
expect a sail to sit properly and hold its draught on 
buckling spars. The lead of the sheet is such that the 
boom cannot be kept rigid, and just as soon as it blows 
its end turns up like a pugdog's tail, throwing the canvas 
all out of shape. Then the back-wind from the mainsail 
makes it impossible to keep the mizzen full unless it is 
sheeted very flat. On yawls with gaff-headed mizzens 





Yawl Rigs 



9° 

the mast is frequently too short; consequently the head 
of the sail cannot be kept in place. With jib-headed 
mizzens the same spar is too light ; in consequence when 
the sheet is brought down hard the mast buckles aft, 
throwing the head of the sail into a bag. How freqaently 
you see a yawl on the wind with her mizzen all a-shiver. 
If you make the boomkin longer, the boom stouter, and 
give the mast a good head, you will get a better sitting 
and more efficient sail. 

Now let us, in order to test the qualities of short-rigged 
sloop and yawl, place them in such situations as they are 
liable to get into when cruising. First they are caught 
in a heavy, sudden blow with a lee shore close aboard. 
It is necessary to shorten sail at once. The yawl simply 
lowers her mainsail and, holding way under mizzen and 
jib, forereaches along, while the crew, having secured 
the boom, proceed to tie in the reefs. The sloop is in 
such a situation that she cannot run off; she must either 
anchor, lower everything and drift, or else jolly along with 
head sheets flowed and the peak of the mainsail up. 
Having a part of the mainsail drawing increases the diffi- 
culty of reefing, and if there is any sea the lowering of the 
sail will cause her to roll, making it bad work securing 




Sharpie 




Knockabout 




Sharpie 




C 13 TVfoVF_-R -QeL. 

Raceabout 



93 

the clew. The yawl's clew is inboard, where it can be 
readily handled, and owing to her jib and mizzen sheets 
being aft she is comparatively steady. 

Again, we will suppose that both these boats have 
come to anchor, sails stowed and awnings up. It comes 
on to blow, and it is necessary to shift berth to a more 
secure anchorage. The yawl hoists her jib and mizzen— 
a very easy matter — and beats up to a better anchorage. 
The sloop has to take in her awning, clear decks and per- 
haps reef the mainsail before hoisting it to follow. How 
many times has the .cruising man remained in an uncom- 
fortable berth because of the labor of making sail on his 
sloop after all has been snugged down? 

Now let us suppose these two boats are running off 
large, with a steep sea and heavy wind. The yawl takes 
in her mizzen and lets her boom broad off, its short 
length preventing the danger of tripping. The sloop 
has no mizzen to take in, but it has a long boom which 
must be watched carefully or else topped-up. And with 
a strong beam wind the yawl with jib and mizzen stowed 
will ratch along under reefed mainsail; very few sloops 
will do that. 

One time when coming down along shore with a yawl 



94 

we had an unsteady northwest wind, blowing a good 
whole-sail breeze, with now and again tremendous heavy 
puffs, acting as wind off land frequently does. We made 
company with a sloop of about our own size, but a much 
faster boat. In the puffs it was necessary for both of us 
to let up, but the rest of the time we could carry our can- 
vas without worrying. I put two hands on the main sheet 
with orders to spill the sail when a puff struck, and, keep- 
ing on my course, shivered her through. The sloop man 
first tried luffing out, but, losing distance by this, he re- 
sorted to starting sheet and bearing off ; consequently he 
was all over the shop. Once or twice he had to drop his 
peak in order to keep control. Neither of us wanted to 
get offshore, as we had to haul up at the next point, so 
were hugging the beach rather close. At last he gave in, 
anchored and started to reef. We followed suit, but kept 
on our course under jib and mizzen, getting a two-mile 
lead and first home. He came aboard that evening and 
asked me what kind of yawl his sloop would make. As 
he flicked the oakum out of us the next day in a beat to 
windward I am afraid he didn't stay converted, but re- 
lapsed into the sloop heresy. 

The ketch rig, which is very like the yawl, has all the 




Clipper Dory 




Cat Sloop 




Fishing Dory 




Cat 



97 

letter's virtues and defects and a few of its own. The 
difference between the ketch and the yawl is this: in the 
yawl the mizzen-mast is stepped abaft the rudder post, 
and in the ketch forward of it. In the ketch this brings 
the mast just where it is most in the way, right at the 
forward end of the cockpit, generally obliging the putting 
of the companion on one side, or else taking the hatch 
well forward to the middle of the cabin. The ketch main- 
sail is narrow-footed, and longer on the hoist than that 
of the yawl. It is a very light and easy rig to handle, and 
for large boats is better than the yawl ; and for small ones 
it is better than the schooner. In this country it is mostly 
used on shallow, flat-bottomed hulls, such as are em- 
ployed in navigating Southern waters. In the British 
Isles it is a favorite rig for coasters, and I have heard it 
highly commended by coastwise skippers. Most of the 
sloops formerly used in that trade have been in late years 
converted into ketches. The most marked advantage it 
has over the yawl is that, if the largest sail be taken in, 
there is left in the head sails and mizzen a good spread 
of canvas ; whereas, if the mainsail be taken off a yawl 
she is under too short sail to do satisfactory work. The 



9 8 

advantage the ketch has over the schooner is in getting 
lid of the long main boom. 

Like the catboat, if the weather were a constant quan- 
tity, the schooner would be a rig without peer. In 
smooth water and when she can carry her sail, especially 
to windward, there is no rig to equal the schooner. She 
has the speed and weatherliness of the sloop, with lighter 
and easier sails to handle. She can be shortened down 
without reefing, and can spread plenty of light canvas in 
soft winds. Her defect is the defect of all fore-and-afters, 
although in her case it is aggravated by having the main- 
mast stepped further aft — she is a bad runner in heavy 
water. 

I have made a passage of twelve days in a schooner, 
during which time we never had the stops off the main- 
sail ; during part of the time having no after-sail, and the 
rest of the time a trysail set. To have set the mainsail 
and squared off the boom would surely have brought 
about a disaster. 

Let me here repeat some former remarks on the sub- 
ject: It is often a matter of wonder to landsmen why 
sailors continue to use square sails, when to all intents 
the fore-and-aft canvas is so much easier to handle. So 




Jib and Mainsail 




Sloop Rig 



IOO 



it is in smooth water and under average conditions ; so 
long as one of our typical fore-and-aft schooners can 
carry all sail and make progress in a windward direction 
there is no abler vessel afloat. But when obliged to 
shorten down or make a run for it, they are the worst 
craft in the world. So long as you can keep sail on them 
they will do all that a ship can be asked to do, but once 
they are stripped in a gale, good-bye to safety. Take a 
good look at an ordinary two-masted coaster, and you 
will comprehend at once why this is. These vessels have 
enormously long lower masts, and the spread of the rig- 
ging is in consequence small ; their booms are long and 
heavy, and all the weight above deck is centered in a line' 
over the keel. The pressure of canvas, except when the 
sails are winged, is all on one side, and is exerted so as 
to bring a twisting strain upon the supporting spars. 
There is not, as in the square-rigger, a balancing of 
weights and strains. The freer these vessels are sailing 
the more pronounced is this strain. The only relief the 
spar can find is to impart this strain to the hull, which in 
consequence forces the bow in 4ie opposite direction and 
brings a pressure upon the helm. To prevent this action 
a reducing of the after canvas is necessary. 




Pole Mast Sloop 




Cutter Rig 




Ketch 




Small Schooner 



io3 

A close study of the fore-and-aft rigs used along our 
coast will show what devices have been resorted to in 
order to remedy this defect. In the first place, there was 
the subdividing of the mainsail — making a three-master ; 
then a gradual reduction of the spanker, until on many 
of our three-masted schooners it is to-day the smallest 
of the three lower sails. At the same time the lower 
masts have been shortened and the hoists of the topsails 
increased. On the great lakes the fresh-water man has 
reduced his spanker to almost the proportions of a ketch's 
mizzen, the necessity of more constant jibing having 
forced him to this change. But alter as you please, the 
fore-and-after is still a bad runner when winds blow 
strong and seas run high. 

Our modern racing schooners are a particularly bad 
type. They are really large sloops with a fake foresail, 
this latter bit of canvas being more ornamental than use- 
ful. A good specimen of '.he rig proper are some of our 
large cruising schooners, with wide-footed foresails and 
short main booms. The pilot-boat and fisherman rigs 
are also excellent types. 

In a proper schooner the foresail should be in such a 
position as to allow the vessel to be handled under it 




Ketch 




Full Schooner Rig 



i°5 

alone, as it is the last sail to take off in heavy weather. 
It should be broad-footed in order to trim properly ; you 
cannot trim a narrow-footed foresail so as to draw when 
going to windward unless it has a lug ; this lug is a nui- 
sance, as it obliges the tending of the sheet when tacking. 
The main boom should not go over the taffrail beyond 
easy reach. A forty-foot pole-mast schooner makes a 
very handy boat for two men to work. Her heaviest sail 
is lighter than the heaviest sail of a yawl or ketch of the 
same size This is something you must always take into 
consideration when choosing a rig for cruising. The 
average yachtsman is a man who does not do manual 
labor for a living, and is consequently soft-muscled. 
Handling sails, unless you are constantly at it, is hard 
labor, and if a boat is short-handed is sometimes a heavy 
tax on the strength of the crew. Any one who has 
hoisted a heavy mainsail by himself will understand this. 
Many a time after making sail or reefing when alone I 
have lain down completely exhausted. 

A man who intends to employ a crew can afford to 
ignore this question, as he can suit his crew to his boat ; 
but when you depend upon amateurs for help you cannot 
do so. One day you may have a double watch, and the 



io6 

next day nobody. So it is best to select a rig of such 
weight as you can handle yourself if necessary. This 
makes you to a certain extent independent of your 
friends. 



ON SAIL AS AN 

AUXILIARY 



(i When blows the breeze we spread our sail 

cAnd save the gasoline, 
Tint when the gentle zephyrs fail 

We start the old machine; 
*And with a clank of shaft and crank 

Go rattling into port — 
eAnd this is what, to he quite frank, 

Some folks consider sport. ' 



ON SAIL AS AN AUXILIARY 

ONE day, while standing talking- to a builder, we 
were joined by the owner of a naphtha launch 
who was desirous of having his vessel rigged as 
a yawl, and had come to get the builder's opinion as to 
what the change would accomplish and cost. In re- 
sponse to an inquiry as to what speed he might expect 
to get out of the craft under canvas, the builder answer- 
ed, "four miles. " "Then," replied the owner in jubilant 
tones, "she will go eleven miles, as I get seven out of her 
now without any sail." He was greatly surprised, and 
rather suspicious of our knowledge, when we informed 
him that if sail increased the speed of his craft over her 
maximum to the extent of half-a-mile an hour, he might 
consider himself fortunate. Now, this man is by no 
means a lone bird in his belief ; he shares the misconcep- 
tion with many launch-owners and others. Like some of 
our popular authors who write sea stories that are not 

109 



no 



sea stories, the average man firmly believes that steam- 
ships can and do sail, and it will take many years of 
pounding to get this idea out of the public's head. There 
are afloat steam vessels that can and do sail, but they 
are sailing vessels equipped with engines. In former 
times almost all ocean-going steam craft could work to 
leeward under canvas, but they, unlike the vessel of to- 
day, were heavily rigged, most of them carrying full sets 
of yards forward, and spreading many thousand feet of 
cloth. The steam vessel of this age, when put to using 
sail, simply drifts. Except as a check to rolling, the sails 
carried by steam vessels are of little use. 

Now, to the question of what use is sail as an auxiliary 
power. In vessels of a speed exceeding ten knots, it is 
of little or no use, except when due to the form of the 
hull, or for other reasons the slip of the screw is exces- 
sive. As, for instance, in a vessel towing others, such as 
sea-going tugs, where the actual speed is one-half of the 
screw speed, sail is an aid. Again, in a vessel of bad 
form, when, frequently owing to the weight on the en- 
gine it is unable to run at its highest working speed, sail 
is an aid, as it lifts some of the weight off the engine, 
and allows an increase of revolutions without an in- 



Ill 

crease of fuel expenditure. For this purpose, fore-and- 
aft canvas is of doubtful utility, the square sail being far 
better. But in high-powered, fine-lined vessels auxiliary 
sail is of no use whatever. The little that might be 
gained by employing it under the most favorable circum- 
stances is offset by the retarding effect of the windage 
under unfavorable circumstances. 

A vessel whose screw speed is eight knots and whose 
actual speed is six knots has a slip of twenty-five per 
cent. Supposing that her sail power is sufficient to drive 
her five knots or three knots in excess of the slip. Now, 
if her speed be increased to eleven knots by using canvas, 
it must not only take up the slip, but induce an accel- 
eration of the engine, so as to give an additional screw 
speed of three knots — an increase of 37^ per cent, over 
the working speed of the engine. This is practically im- 
possible. No engine is built to run at a speed of 373/2 
per cent, over its working speed, yet unless the screw 
travels as fast as the hull, it is useless. It is exactly the 
same thing as when trying to row a boat running under 
sail ; unless you move the oars faster through the water 
than the boat is moying you do not assist in the propul- 
sion. Reasoning from this, we may lay it down as an 



112 

axiom, that: When a vessel's maximum speed under 
power exceeds her maximum speed under canvas, the 
use of sail in conjunction with power will not increase 
the speed beyond the percentage of slip. 

When mechanical propulsion is the auxiliary power, 
we have a different problem. Take a vessel capable of 
being driven by sail at a speed of eight knots, and by her 
engines alone at four knots. Now, if she be sailing at 
a speed of eight knots, and we start her engine to make 
the number of revolutions necessary to induce a speed of 
four knots, the screw, not traveling as fast as the hull, 
will be dragged to the amount of the difference between 
its speed and the speed of the boat — four knots. In that 
the screw shall have a propulsive force it must be driven 
at a speed to exceed eight knots, an increase of over ioo 
per cent. Reasoning from this, we may lay it down as 
an axiom, that: A vessel whose maximum speed under 
sail exceeds her maximum speed under power will not 
increase her speed by employing sail and screw con- 
joint }-. 

While auxiliary sail is of little or no value, auxiliary 
mechanical propulsion is. But its chief value lies in it as 
a substitute, and not as an auxiliary. The wind — the 



"3 

fuel of the sail — is not only a variable quantity, but fre- 
quently an absent one. A small vessel, such as are the 
majority of our cruising yachts, seldom exceeds a speed 
of eight knots, and as a general average taken through a 
summer's cruising do not log more than four, much of 
this low average is due to the hours spent in calms and 
light airs ; and if we add the time lost in waiting for a 
breeze, the average will fall still lower. A yacht in sail- 
ing ioo miles in the usual summer weather takes, we will 
say, twenty-five hours. Sixty miles of this is made in a 
fair breeze in ten hours, then six hours in which she 
makes ten miles, leaving nine hours in which to make the 
other thirty. 



60 miles 10 hours. 


6 miles an hour. 


10 " 6 " 


12-3" 


30 * 9 " 


3 i-3 " 


Average for 100 miles, 


4 



Let us suppose that a similar craft is fitted with a 
motor to drive her at a speed of five miles an hour. She 
voyages ioo miles, the first sixty in ten hours. During 
the doldrums she uses her power for six hours, and 
makes thirty miles, and in sixteen hours has covered 
ninety miles against the sail yacht's seventy. Having 



ii4 

made the distance at an average speed of sH miles, she 
is within sight of her port when the other is thirty miles 
off. 

Last summer I ran thirty-eight miles in fourteen 
hours in a small sloop. Thirty-two miles of this distance 
was made in eight hours, the remaining six miles taking 
six hours to cover, and if you analyze a set of cruising 
runs you will see that mine was an exceptionally good 
performance. I usually, in cruising, figure on making 
an average of three miles, thirty miles being a fair day's 
work and forty a good one, while a fifty-mile run is pos- 
sible only once or twice during the season. This is in a 
boat whose maximum speed is seven knots. 

I have not the slightest doubt but what a man with a 
yacht fitted with a motor capable of driving her at a speed 
of five miles, and using the engine only as a substitute 
for sail when the wind is dead or fickle, could cruise 
twice as far and see twice as much as one who depended 
solely upon canvas. This is a deal to promise, but no 
doubt tho'se who have had a long experience in cruising 
in our Eastern waters, will underwrite the opinion. 

But while auxiliary power has its advantages, it also 
has its disadvantages. It increases the expense ; it takes 



ii5 

up room in the boat; it is noisy, and, to a certain extent, 
disagreeable, due mostly to the use of a fuel which is not 
equal, odoriferously speaking, to genuine wood violets. 
But its chief drawback is that its use tends to make 
cruising less toilsome and hazardous. Like all modern 

'Inventions that save our seamen's lives, 
And murder the breed of sailor men," 

its effect is to discount skill and pluck, to take away from 
voyaging that uncertainty which is the chief charm of the 
cruiser's existence. The fact that you leave port with a 
certainty of getting to your destination on time, barring 
accidents, makes somewhat monotonous an event that 
otherwise containing a large element of chance induces a 
corresponding degree of excitement. There is probably 
no pastime so tiresome to an active man as steam yacht- 
ing, especially if it be in familiar waters. A steam yacht 
is a lazy man's palace and an active man's prison. Ex- 
cept when there is a race or a difficult bit of navigation, 
I would as soon run a trolley car as a power boat. But, 
then, happily for the world, we are not all taken off the 
same molds. Many men yacht for pleasure, and find 
such pleasure in idleness. I don't. I find my pleasure 
in physical exertion, and in opposing what skill and 



n6 

knowledge I may possess to the task of getting the better 
of the elements. But as age and rheumatism tighten 
their grip, my heart is being gradually weaned from the 
sail, and I find myself thinking seriously, if, after all, it 
will not be better to have a little power under the deck 
to fall back on at certain times. 



ON REEFING 



^Precaution is the mother of safety. 



ON REEFING 

THIS is a short chapter on a short subject, but one 
that is of interest to the green hand. Men often 
ask when it is time to reef? It is always time to reef 
when you think it is. The moment you would feel easier 
and your boat handle better by having less sail spread, 
is the time to shorten down. Never mind what anybody 
else is doing or what anybody else tells you. It is your 
boat, not some other boat that is worrying, and yourself, 
and not some other person, who is in charge. Never 
carry sail for the sake of carrying it; the ignorant may 
praise your recklessness and pluck, but the experienced 
man will call you either a lubber or a fool. 

Never let the action of another guide you in this par- 
ticular, unless the action agrees with your own judgment. 
It is very common for young sailors to reef or not reef 
as they see some other man, and consequently to carry 
sail much to the risk of their vessel and lives. You must 

119 



120 

remember that these remarks of mine have nothing to do 
with racing. In racing, a man cannot reef when he wants 
to, but when he can; therefore, he frequently carries sail 
when he would give a good slice of his daily income to have 
it off, and often keeps in his reefs when he would like to 
shake them out, but does not for the same reason. Then, 
again, in racing, boats are always in company, and if an 
accident happens someone is close aboard to give as- 
sistance ; but in cruising this is not so, and many a life 
has been lost for want of a reef in time. 

When I was young and fresh I had an idea that if any- 
one could carry sail on a boat I could do the same. One 
day I had a lesson that made me thir\k, and partially 
cured me of the habit. I went with a clever old boatman 
across the Sound to bring home a new cat. We each 
took a crew, and, to return, he sailed the new boat, and 
I the one we had come over in. Halfway across it came 
on to blow very hard, and it was all I could do to keep 
my boat on her feet. My crew wanted me to stop and 
reef, but as the new boat kept on, I insisted upon follow- 
ing her, being afraid that the old man would laugh at me. 
In plain talk, I was afraid of being thought a coward, 
and for this I jeopardized my own and the lives of the 



121 

other boys. When at last, after a struggle and half full 
of water, we reached port, the old man met me with a 
torrent of invectives, calling me a fool and several other 
hard names for not reefing. 

"But you didn't reef," I protested. "Reef!" he ex- 
claimed. "No, for I couldn't; but I'd given fourteen 
dollars if I could have got that sail down. Do you think 
I was carrying whole sail for fun?" It seems the hal- 
liards, being new, had jammed, and they could not 
get the sail down, so had to lug it. This taught me a 
lesson, one that I have never forgotten; and oftentimes 
when I see a man struggling along under too much sail, 
I wonder if he, like the old boatman, wouldn't give four- 
teen dollars if he could get that sail down. 

The first thing when you get a crew is to break them 
in to a method of reefing. Give each man a place and 
teach him to keep it; this is the secret of rapid and 
efficient work. Let us suppose that you are in command 
of a small sloop, with a total crew of four. It comes on 
to blow, and you decide to reef. There is a bit of lee 
under the shore, and you go in for it. Now you have 
decided to reef without anchoring, and when close 
enough luff up and prepare to lower the mainsail. Your 



122 

mate, your best hand, and the man in his watch go to the 
halliards, you stay at the helm and your watch-mate 
takes the sheet. 

Now, if you lower the mainsail all the way down, you 
will have to take in your headsail and drift ; this will soon 
take you out of your kindly lee, but if you can keep some 
after-sail up, with the jib on an easy sheet, you can jolly 
her up to windward a bit and keep close inshore. Hav- 
ing decided on this you order the sail lowered down to 
the reef. The getting down of the sail quickly depends 
on your cleverness at the helm ; you must spill just at the 
right moment. As the sail comes down your two men 
handle and lay the sail along the boom, the mate tend- 
ing the halliards. When the tack cringle is low enough 
he belays the halliards and ties down the tack. By this 
time you have the pendant ready, and when the mate 
shouts "All fast," you haul out, one man helping you and 
the others shaking and lighting out the canvas. When 
this is handed out and made fast, the hands begin to tie 
the points, beginning in the middle and working forward 
and aft. 

Your business is to look after the dog-ear, to tie in 
the outboard points, and pass a lashing round the clew, 



123 

wrapping it round the boom. The points are passed 
between the foot of the sail and the lacing, not between 
the lacing and the boom, a common error with green 
hands. Tie your points with a square bow knot; don't 
tie them too tight; try and put the same strain on all. 
Don't haul out your clew too hard, especially if it is rain- 
ing or the water is flying. The pendant will shrink one 
way, the sail the other, and in consequence the canvas 
be pulled out of life. As soon as all the points are tied, 
look them over carefully to see that they belong to the 
proper reef, and are not tied cross-faced, and, if correct, 
hoist away. 

Lazy-jacks on a boom are of great assistance in taking 
a sail in, but they are in the way w T hen reefing. Quarter- 
lifts as substitutes are better for small craft. The reef 
points should be made of different kinds of stuff, or else 
be dyed different colors, so as to be easily distinguish- 
able. I prefer different kinds of stuff, as they can be told 
by the feel at night. The first reef being cotton line, the 
second manila, and the third cotton. 

If you are going to tie in more than one reef, it is best 
to tie in the first, then the next over it, and so on. This 
also makes a much neater looking job. Teach your men 



1*5 

to roll the sail up tightly before tying in ; nothing looks 
so bad as a reef made up of a series of bags. 

If you are caught out in the open, and have to reef, it 
is best to lower all down and reef running off ; by getting 
the boom firmly lashed amidships you can handle the 
sail, whereas if you lay-to the sea will make trouble. In 
running off carefully tend your helm, and keep the ves- 
sel moving, or you may get pooped. If anywhere near 
shore it is best to go in, anchor and reef in quiet, and at 
your leisure. The methods of reefing a sloop are the 
same for reefing a cat, but if you have a yawl, ketch or 
schooner, the work is much more simple and easy. 

Always, when anchored in an open roadstead, or in 
any place Where you may have to get out in a hurry, reef 
your large sails before turning in. Then, if it comes on 
to blow in the night, you are ready for it. If you expect 
a squall to hit you, in a place where you cannot anchor, 
reef down, and do so in plenty of time. Before leaving 
harbor, if there is any question of weather outside, reef 
and carry them out with you, until you get the heft of the 
breeze; if it is lighter than you expected, it is a simple 
job to shake out. 

Reefed jibs are not much use ; they seldom work well, 



126 

and it is far better to shift headsails than to reef them. 
The jibs should be snap-hooked on the stay ; in this way 
they can be quickly shifted. Reefing on a bowsprit in a 
seaway is a difficult and dangerous job. I shall speak 
further of this matter of head-sails in another chapter. 



ON ANCHORS AND 

ANCHORING 



"Let's forge a goodly anchor— a 

bower thick and broad; 
For a heart of oak is hanging on 

every blow I bode; 
And I see a good ship riding 

all in a perilous road — 
The low reef roaring on her lee; the 

roll of ocean poured 
From stem to stern, sea after sea; 

the mainmast by the board; 
"The bulwarks down; the rudder gone; 

the boats stove at the chains; 
But courage still, brave mariners — the 

bower yet remains ! 
zAnd not an inch to flinch he deigns — 

save when ye pitch sky high; 

Then moves his head, as though he said, 

4 'Fear nothing — here am 1/ 

— Ferguson 



ON ANCHORS AND ANCHORING 

ONE of man's oldest, simplest and most perfect in- 
struments — the anchor. Like all early inven- 
tions, it obtained its present form by a slow pro- 
cess of evolution, and, as is the case with nearly all im- 
plements of the same nature, it is to-day to be found in 
use in every step-form which during the gradual pro- 
cess of development it assumed. The primal anchor of 
stone is still universally employed, its immediate suc- 
cessors, the stone-weighted net and log, are yet in use in 
the East, and iron forms that might have found their 
shape under the hammer blows of the sinewy Sidonian 
smiths still swing from the bows of vessels plying the 
Indian seas. 

As to who first forged anchors of iron there is some 
doubt, the ancient historians disagreeing on this pointwith 
amiable unanimity that characterizes all their statements 

129 



130 

in regard to the origin of things, both animate and in- 
animate. The balance of evidence appears to favor the 
Phrygians, a people of Asia Minor, whose most cele- 
brated king, Midas, is well remembered as the avaricious 
monarch who had the unfortunate experience with gold, 
as related in a yarn which probably originated in the 
imaginative brain of some ancient free-silver orator. 

But whether these people or their contemporaries, the 
ingenious, rich and daring Phoenicians, first forged it, 
there is no question but what iron anchors were originally 
used by the maritime nations inhabiting the shore of the 
great tideless sea. The anchors were, as I have said, of 
stone and of wood weighted with stone and metal, such 
as are still used by the Chinese and Malays. It is easy 
to see how from the latter came the shape of the anchor 
of to-day. From the use of a straight balk of timber to 
one with a crook is a natural step. It is much easier to 
lash a stone to a crook of wood by placing it between 
the trunk and branch than it is to lash it to a straight 
stick. 

Evidence favors this as the step of progression; the 
first iron anchors having but one arm and no stock ; be- 
ing simply the wooden crook reproduced in metal. The 



i3i 

next step was to add the bill or point, which very readily 
took its shape from the spear of that day or the spade, 
both of which implements were arrow-shaped. The next 
step forward was the adding of the second arm. The 
arms of ancient anchors were straight, not curved, as 
are the anchors of to-day. The curved arm being very 
modern. With the stock added, when and by whom it is 
not known, the anchor of the ancients continued to do 
its duty until early in the last century, when an English- 
man named Pering greatly improved it by curving the 
arms and strengthening the crown and shank. At the 
same time the trip-hammer came into use for forging, 
allowing of a far more perfect welding of material than 
could be secured with hand-swung sledges. 

In order to understand the action of the anchor, which 
is perfect, it is only necessary to take the common pick, 
such as is employed by laborers in breaking up earth, 
and drive it into solid ground. Drive the arm of your 
pick right to the helve ; now pull on it at right angles to 
the arm. You cannot move it ; nor could the strongest 
man ; simply lift the handle up and the arm will come 
out of the ground easily. Such is the action of the an- 
chor. Is anything more simple or perfect? 



i3 2 

When out ahead this small arm will hold a great ship 
against wind and tide; when brought under foot it is 
broken from its hold by half a dozen men. An anchor 
weighing 2,000 pounds will hold a ship weighing 5,000 
tons, yet when brought to such a position as will permit 
of its being tilted up it can be broken-out by an engine 
of five horse-power. 

Since Pering's day many improved anchors have 
been patented; of these only two, the Rodgers and 
Trotman, are of any account. Of what are called "patent 
anchors, " that is, anchors of peculiar shapes, there is this 
to say, they are inferior to the original form. The only 
argument in their favor is that they stow easier, and it is 
for this reason that the stockless variety is employed on 
steam vessels. This form can be hauled directly into the 
hawse pipe, thus doing away with the labor of catting 
and fishing, but they will not hold with the old form, and 
need a much longer scope of hawse. I have experi- 
mented with several of those built for yachts and have in 
everv case found them inferior to the common anchor. 
They are useful sometimes as stern-holds, and for drop- 
ping on ragged bottom, where a common hook is liable 
to foul. 



*33 

For use where a vessel is anchored in a current, and 
is apt to be tide-rode, the Trotman is excellent. The pe- 
culiarity of this anchor is, that the arms are pivoted so 
that the fluke of the upper arm when the hook is biting 
is down on the shank; this prevents the hawser from 
fouling and upsetting the anchor if the yacht happens to 
ride over it. 

The average yacht anchor that is found on sale is an 
instrument that could be largely improved without ad- 
ding to its cost or weight. A better distribution of the 
metal would add much to its value, but its worst feature 
is the method in which the stock is secured in the head. 
These pins are always a nuisance, frequently working out 
and more frequently being lost. There are anchors made 
in which the stock screws in, and others in which the stock 
passes through a slot with a lug, which, on being turned, 
engages with the side of the head, preventing its slipping 
back. Both these are better than the pin. Every yachts- 
man knows what it is to find the pin missing just when it 
is .wanted and wanted in a hurry, and to have to substi- 
tute a nail or a penknife blade. There is a small fortune 
for the man who will bring out an anchor with a stock 



134 

that can be shipped and unshipped quickly, and yet stay 
fast when down on the bottom. 

The strain on anchors when holding a vessel is noth- 
ing like what it is commonly supposed to be. If it was 
how could a vessel be drawn up to her anchor? It has to 
blow very hard when a man cannot draw a small yacht 
up to her hook. The reason of this is, that the windage 
of an anchored vessel is a comparatively small surface, 
so long as she lies head-on. It is the sum of the area of 
the widest section of the above-water hull, and the area of 
the rigging and spars, found by multiplying their diame- 
ters by their lengths. This is, as I have said, a com- 
paratively small surface. 

In a strong blow, such as yachtsmen generally de- 
scribe as a gale, the wind pressure is only about five 
pounds to the square foot, while in an ordinary breeze, 
such as usually blows in summer, the pressure is scant of 
a pound. So that a boat with a hundred square feet of 
windage would, in a yachtsman's gale, only be forced back 
by a pressure of 500 pounds. Some day, just for your 
own enlightenment, take a spring scale and put it on 
your hawse when the yacht is riding to a wind with no 
sea on. 



i35 

One day my boat was lying in a tide running at a rate 
of one mile. The bottom was a medium hard gravel and 
the water perfectly clear. In turning tides she had cap- 
sized the anchor and it was lying stock up and flukes 
flat. This anchor, weighing thirty pounds, by its weight 
and friction of the stock end on the bottom kept the boat 
stationary. Her displacement was just over four tons. 
The anchor was simply resisting the friction of the tide 
on the immersed hull. Reverse this and it shows how 
small is the power necessary to drive a vessel one mile an 
hour. 

The direct strain on anchors is of no consequence ex- 
cept in very high winds ; it is the sea that causes them 
to leave their hold. Go back to our pick for an explana- 
tion. When given sufficient scope the anchor, like the 
pick, is resisting a pull at right angles, and stands fast, 
but the minute the sea begins to move the vessel up and 
down the handle of the anchor is worked up and down ; 
the shorter the scope the more surely is this motion 
transmitted, and the more effective is it in breaking-out 
the arm. To prevent this in a heavy sea we resort to a 
practice called backing. 

The object of backing an anchor is to prevent this up 



136 

and down motion from passing from the vessel to the 
anchor. In order to do this it is necessary to weight the 
cable, so as to prevent its lifting from the bottom, some 
distance inside of the anchor. This is done either by 
leading the cable through another anchor or by weight- 
ing the cable with ballast. The last is the better method, 
as it can be done from the vessel without disturbing the 
hawse. 

I find that few yachtsmen make a study of anchoring : 
mostly because they anchor in places where there is 
little to be feared either from wind or sea. It is only 
when they get into harbors where both are to be dreaded 
that they learn this part of the trade. To show how uni- 
versally careless we are in this respect it is only neces- 
sary to recall the disastrous effects an unexpected sum- 
mer gale has upon a fleet of our yachts. In August, 1893, 
a storm of this character swept the Eastern seaboard, 
and some eighty yachts were driven ashore and many of 
them totally wrecked. In the summer of 1897 a moder- 
ate gale came on the coast, and out of a fleet of some 
thirty yachts anchored and moored about the boat I was 
in, twelve went adrift. The same day, in and around 
Boston, the storm played havoc with the pleasure fleet. 



137 

Another time we were caught off the Thimbles in Long 
Island Sound in company with a small fleet. Everything 
dragged and several were only saved by a lucky shift 
of wind from going on the rocks. Many of these boats 
had no spare anchors ; some had the anchors and not 
sufficient cable ; others had ground tackle much too light 
for their bulk. Few of the crews knew how to properly 
use what they did have. I was in a 30-foot sloop of the 
old flat type, an exceedingly bad sea boat. We rode it 
out with two anchors and 300 pounds of ballast down 
ahead, but it was only by judicious management, and the 
addition of a new mainsheet to our scanty length of 
cable. 

Every boat should carry two anchors, and every boat 
that cannot readily make fast to a dock, three. The 
weight of anchors to be carried can only be approxi- 
mated, as it depends largely upon the build of the vessel, 
the extent and prevailing conditions of her sailing waters 
and the service engaged in. A boat that is only used for 
day-sailing that finds shelter at night in a safe harbor and 
moors 01* makes fast, needs but light ground tackle. She 
can get along with an anchor weighing a half-pound to 



138 

each foot of over-all length, and need never to resort to 
her spare hook except on extraordinary occasions. 

Narrow deep boats with sharp entrances are very light 
on their ground tackle and do not need nearly as heavy 
anchors as do broad shoal boats. Our modern full-bowed 
boats are very hard on all kinds of gear, and need 
especially heavy anchors and cables. Flat-bottomed 
craft, like sharpies and scow houseboats, are the hardest 
of all, and your hooks and hawsers can't be too heavy to 
make sure of holding them. High-sided and high- 
housed yachts are also hard riders, the windage having a 
tendency to keep them worrying at their hawse. All 
these things must be taken into consideration when se- 
lecting a weight of anchor and a size of cable or chain, 
but, as it is always best to err on the safe side, be less 
afraid of getting too heavy gear than of getting too light. 
A 20-foot boat will hold to a ten-pound anchor, if the 
hook is well proportioned and takes a good hold in good 
ground, but I should not feel comfortable in turning in 
on a rough night with only that weight of iron out ahead 
of me. An old fellow, who is a bit of a crank on the 
subject, once took me to task for carrying such heavy 
anchors and cables. To his mind they were totally un- 



139 

necessary; ones half the weight and size would do as 
well. He used a twelve-thread line and an anchor about 
vest-pocket size on his boat. 

His argument was good from his side of the deck, but 
things had a different aspect from mine. In the first 
place, he always anchored where he wanted to, but I, 
being a roving bird, had frequently to anchor where I 
did not want to. In the second, if I turned in to sleep I 
had to do so feeling sure that my boat would be in the 
same place the next morning, or else I could not sleep 
peacefully. Again, a small line is awkward to handle 
and is easily chafed through ; these are things to be con- 
sidered as well as strength. The breaking strain of a 
cable used should always be at least four times the weight 
you expect to put on it. It is to the extra factor of safety 
that you must frequently trust for the odd trick and the 
game. 

A heavily-built cabin craft, or a yacht loaded with 
lead on the keel, needs an anchor at least a pound weight 
for each foot of her deck length. This is for a regular 
stand-by, something to b.e used whenever she comes to a 
halt. Such weight will, under all ordinary conditions, give 
sufficient hold, admitting that the bottom is suitable for 



140 

anchoring. I have seen a 25-foot cabin sloop hang to a 
twenty-pound anchor in a gale of wind, in a place where 
there was no sea to bother her. But the sea is what 
troubles the anchor, not the direct strain. 

A yacht of 40 feet, used for cruising to distant ports 
and anchoring here, there, and everywhere, should carry 
four anchors. Of course you can get along with less, 
perhaps, for many seasons, but to have peace of mind 
and absolute security, you need four. Two of these an- 
chors are for constant use and the other two for special 
work and dangerous emergencies. 

The two first are what are called on large vessels 
bowers, being the anchors hung at the bows, but we will 
sometimes speak of them as stand-bys, they being the in- 
struments always ready for use. The third is a light 
fellow, exceedingly useful when needed, called a kedge. 
The fourth is the big-weight, whose services are only 
called upon as the last resource, and who passes the bulk 
of his days in idleness below — he is called the spare. 

The stand-bys for a 40-footer should weigh together 
twice the boat's length in pounds — 80 pounds. This can 
either be evenly divided or unevenly, as you see fit. I 
prefer to divide the weight unevenly, having, say, one 



I4i 

thirty-five and one forty-five-pound, or one thirty and 
one fifty-pound. These anchors should be galvanized 
and be uniformly strong throughout, the large one 
being of heavy shank and broad palm ; the smaller, 
lighter in build, with narrow palm and sharp bill. This 
lighter anchor should always be ready for service under 
the bowsprit or at the cathead. 

On a cruiser the heavier stand-by should also be kept 
ready to shackle to the chain or bend to the hawser. 
It need not be kept hanging under the bowsprit or at the 
cathead, but can be lashed on the fore deck, so as to be 
available for instant use. I remember once going ashore 
because the owner insisted upon having the second an- 
chor unshackled and stowed below ; his reason being 
that it made the boat look untidy forward. When we 
rounded-to and let go the small one, the chain parted, 
and before the other could be brought on deck and bent 
on we were blown on the beach. 

The spare anchor is kept below, but not, as in most 
boats, in a place where you cannot get at it without 
hauling over a mass of dunnage. One time, when an- 
chored in an open bight, we were joined at sunset by a 
large sloop ; she letting go outside and to windward of 



142 

us. During the night it came on to blow very hard, 
and at daylight we were riding to both anchors with a 
full hawse ahead. The big sloop was dragging badly, 
and, in response to their calls for help, I took my crew 
and went aboard her. She was in charge of her owner 
and three other amateurs. They had let go both her 
bowers and all the chain, but they failed to hold the 
yacht and she was slowly going for the beach. 

As soon as I got on board I asked if they had a spare 
anchor. The owner, who had just bought the boat and 
was taking her home, after a little thinking, said he 
thought it was mentioned in the inventory, but he had 
never looked to see. Taking my two hands I went below 
to the usual place and began a search. We pulled out 
sails in bags and sails out of bags, awnings and stanch- 
ions, old mops, holystones, rope, brooms, deck cushions 
and the devil knows what, before finally the spare hook 
was brought to light. Into a cabin, that looked like a 
South street junk shop, we at last lugged it and its cable, 
and from the looks of both, decided it was their first call 
to action. That as may be, when once overboard they 
did yeoman service and held the sloop in safety. I did 
not fail to read the owner a lesson on how not to keep 





\y Knk 


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IlillH 


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ill 
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>»!^»w fl 1 111 




\silill^bL. I \\\m 


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^Ct^ow^ 







144 

his reserve ground tackle, and I guess the job of putting 
the dunnage back helped to impress it on his mind. 

The spare anchor occupies but little room if properly 
stowed, takes up the work of the same weight of ballast, 
and is a harmless but exceedingly useful creature. It 
inspires a feeling of safety that more than pays for its 
keep. This anchor should always be used with a hawser, 
and a long and stout one, and to make assurance double- 
ly sure, should be fitted with three fathoms of chain and 
a stout ring to which to bend the rope. You can either 
have the chain permanently attached to anchor or hawser 
as you prefer, but keep both where the ends can be 
readily laid hands upon. The best place to stow it is aft 
under the cockpit floor, placing it in such a way as it 
will lie snug and not get adrift, no matter how the boat 
pitches or heels. If your compass is over it, you had 
better see that the placing of it does not affect that in- 
strument, and if so, how much. Frequently compasses 
are thrown into error by the keeping of anchors and 
awning stanchions under the cockpit floor. 

The fourth anchor — the kedge — is a most useful piece 
of furniture. Being light and easy to handle it can be 
kept on the bows when racing or cruising. If it falls 



i4S 

calm it is there to let go and hold you ; if you go ashore it 
can be at once run out with a line to haul off, and if you 
miss a mooring it will enable you to hang on until a line 
can be carried to the buoy. It is useful when coming-to at 
a dock or when finding a berth in a basin or slip ; light 
enough to be thrown over anywhere you can anchor by 
the stern or head with equal facility. Having it allows 
you in racing on tender trimming craft to keep the stand- 
by anchor below out of the way and where it will inter- 
fere least with the trim of the boat. Heavy weights hung 
on a boat's nose do not improve either its speed or its 
bad w r eather qualities. To'a cruising man a kedge is in- 
valuable ; I would as soon be without my compass as my 
little hook. In boats under 35 feet the kedge takes the 
place of the smaller bower and performs its duties. 

To give good service a kedge must be a properly de- 
signed kedge, not simply a small anchor. The proper 
kedge is what is known as spider-built — long arms, long 
shank, long stock and narrow, sharp flukes. It is diffi- 
cult to get these ready-made, but the shipsmith will make 
you one. The best substitute for a genuine kedge is the 
seine anchor. 

Now what is the best to use with these anchors — chain 



146 

or rope ? With, an anchor like the stand-by, chain is best 
for all boats that have a place to stow it. Chain is more 
lasting, less dirty, and takes but little room in compari- 
son with the same length of rope. Hawsers are always in 
the way, no matter how neatly they are coiled down. Be- 
sides they are expensive, owing to their short lives. In 
bad weather you cannot well keep them on deck, and 
they are wet and disagreeable cabinmates. 

For the kedge a long light line should be used, some- 
thing that one man can readily handle. It is best to- have 
it in two parts ; one part being kept stowed away and the 
other always bent. Then you have less of a coil on deck 
or in the bow locker, but have, by bending on the second 
piece, a length that will enable you to kedge off or on to 
advantage. 

For the spare I prefer, and so will any man who has 
experience, a hawser. In heavy weather a boat will ride 
much easier to hemp than she will to chain; no matter 
how much of the latter you may pay put, she has the 
weight to lift every time she takes up the slack, and con- 
sequently rises slower and falls quicker. Hemp, until it 
gets well soaked, puts little of its weight on a riding ves- 
sel, and besides the give of the slack it stretches in itself. 



147 

But whichever you use, be sure and have plenty of it. 
Remember this: that the first and all-important thing 
in anchoring is SCOPE. 

One night, not long ago, we wanted to anchor a yawl, 
as it was calm and the tide setting us away from our port. 
My companions let the anchor go without first sound- 
ing; it ran to the bitter end of the chain with no bottom. 
As the chart only gave 15 fathoms I was rather surprised 
and supposed I had miscalculated the yacht's position, 
but, as my bearings seemed to be correct, I overhauled 
the chain. How much chain do you think was on that 
anchor? The boat being an old-fashioned plumb-stem- 
mer, 32 feet on top. Just 10 fathoms. Gaze on that — 10 
fathoms of chain to anchor a boat of that size. Why, to 
make it hold in a breeze of wind you would have to be in 
eight feet of water. 

The former owner, who was responsible for this, was 
a man who never went ten miles from his home port, and 
I should judge knew very little about vessel handling. 
There are hundreds of other boats in just the same fix. 
And still we wonder why yachts blow ashore. 

Now, as we are through with the anchors, let us bear- 
off for a bit and tackle the subject of anchoring, which 



148 

is the art of using them. Let me here remark that in all 
my experience I never had anchors fail to do their duty, 
when properly used and attended to, and that every scrape 
in this line that ever I got my boat into, was due to my 
own carelessness or laziness or somebody else's. I have 
had hawsers part and chains break, and I have broken 
arms of anchors and have lost them altogether, but in 
every case the accident was avoidable if proper fore- 
thought and precaution had been used. 

If you are rather new at the business, or have hands 
forward that you cannot rely upon, when making port 
have the hook cleared away early in the game. Then 
go forward and see that all is in order. When she comes 
to let it be at sufficient distance to leeward to kill all 
way before she reaches the selected berth. When stopped 
dead give your order to let go. Then comes in the judg- 
ment as to how much scope she needs. Whatever the de- 
cision, always lean to the side of more than less. 

Before anchoring in a strange place consult the chart, 
and know the bottom, depth, and fall of the tide, also its 
present height; this is of especial importance in places 
where there is a big rise. In light weather, for a short 



149 

stay, six times the depth is sufficient; that is, in six feet 
of water give her six fathoms of cable. 

If it is blowing hard and a sea running, before letting 
go, if you are using a hawser, range a good length of it 
on deck clear for running out. Get a good turn round 
the bitts and after the hook has taken hold slack away 
handsomely, but at the same time keep full control. Let 
her take it out; don't give it to her. When the hawser 
has a lead that enters the water well ahead, make fast, and 
watch how she rides to it. 

You can tell by feeling the cable whether the anchor 
is biting or not. If it continues to drag and drags i apidly 
it is probably foul ; if it drags slowly it is most likely bad 
bottom ; your chart will tell you what kind. 

Never drop without first taking a range, either on 
shore or on a nearby vessel, for not only will it tell you 
if you are dragging, but it is the only sure way of lo- 
cating an anchor if you lose it. The way to tell if you are 
dragging at night or when you cannot get a range is to 
drop the lead overside with a slack line ; if she drags the 
line will trend out ahead. 

If your hook drags badly and you have sail on, get it 
up, and do the act over again. If you cannot, why then 



ISO 

heave in rapidly on the first and when under foot let go 
your second. Do not, if you possibly can help it, let go 
the second while the foul anchor is out ahead, for if it 
should stick it will put you in the predicament of having 
an unreliable hold at the end "of your longest cable. 

If the first anchor drags because the bottom is bad 
holding, then shorten up, let go your second, and pay 
out on both. If she still continues to drag get up the 
spare, and if you pan, heave in on both to half-hawse, 
and then let the spare go. If she goes on dragging you 
have two hopes and one alternative. One hope is, that 
the weather will let up ; the other, that as she drags 
she will get into better holding ground ; the alternative 
I will attend to in another chapter. 

Many accidents are the result of haste and carelessness, 
when letting the hook go. A mate of mine once let the 
anchor drop without fitting the pin in the stock ; it came 
on to blow in the night and we dragged down on another 
yacht. Dropping the hook while a vessel has headway on 
is another cause of anchors being foul. Frequently in 
small yachts carrying the hook under the bowsprit, the 
fluke will catch on the bobstay ; instead of hauling it up 
and clearing it, a lubber will let the stock drop down and 



i5i 

then lift the fluke up and let all go. What is the conse- 
quence? the arm falls across the cable and you have a 
foul anchor. Twice in my life I have had men anchor the 
boat on the bobstay. This happened at night and through 
my not going forward and looking to things myself. In- 
stead of, like the unfortunate Wentworth, exclaiming: 
"Put not your trust in princes," let me cry, "Put not your 
trust in amateurs/' especially coming to anchor at night. 
But the. most frequent cause of mishap is in giving either 
too little or too much scope. Laziness stands impeached 
of the first, and over-caution of the second. 

Before turning in, if the weather looks at all dubious, 
but not threatening enough to warrant your going to 
the trouble of sending off another anchor, you can secure 
yourself from a sudden attack by these means. We will 
suppose you are riding to your heaviest bower. Down the 
second bower under the fore-foot, being careful to see 
that it falls clear, then take the end of your hawser from 
underneath the coil, and take a round-turn round the 
mast, securing the end with two half hitches over the 
standing part. See that it renders freely from the top of 
the coil. Pass it through either the chock on the bow- 
sprit or the chock on the rail. If the yacht drags she will 




How to Anchor with Two Hooks Down 
A is the right way; B the wrong way. 
C shows anchor backed with ballast. 



i53 

carry out the hawser and fetch-up when the end is 
reached. If you are using chain see that it is clear for 
running out. By employing your second anchor in this 
way, you will prevent fouling hawse if the yacht swings 
with the tide or wind. 

Backing an anchor is done in several ways, but as it 
is only done in extreme cases you are generally obliged 
to do it the best way you can, using such materials as are 
at hand. Take two or four pigs of ballast, wrap them se- 
curely with a strong small line, and put on a shawl-strap 
handle over the chain and let them slide down with a 
small line attached to prevent their working right out to 
the anchor. A small piece of chain is better than rope 
to use on a chain hawse. If you can heave in you can 
lash the ballast to the chain, and then pay out again. 

Backing is usually done at the last call, and as it is wet 
and dangerous work on a small boat's head when she is 
pitching with a sea, the job is a hurry one and is frequent- 
ly bungled. By putting a line on the ballast you can re- 
cover it if the lashing parts or frets through. 

A trip-line is made fast to an anchor with a clove hitch 
round the crown, and either buoyed or led on board. 
If led on board, it should be stopped down to the heel 



154 

of the shank with a rotten stop and belayed with plenty 
of slack. 

Now I am going to give you ten rules for anchoring, 
but be pleased to remember that these rules are not fixed 
laws, and as such do not bind you to do anything against 
what judgment, experience, or a present difficulty may 
suggest. 

i. Never drop an anchor until you have first examined 
it. 

2. Never drop an anchor stock down. 

'3. Never drop an anchor from the bows while the boat 
has headway, except for the purpose of preventing her 
going ashore or into something. 

4. With the wind and sea ahead give any amount of 
scope. 

5. In a tide-way give just sufficient to hold, no more, 
unless the conditions of wind and sea oblige a long lead ; 
then watch your hawse when she shifts tides. 

6. When getting underway in a strong wind, do not 
shorten too much before everything is ready aloft; same 
when surrounded by other vessels. 

7. Be sure when you make fast, that you make fast. 
Always weather-bit your hawser before turning in. Don't 



*55 

make fast over an old set of turns when you shorten 
hawse. Always keep your riding-bits clear of everything 
but the hawser. 

8. Always examine the gear before leaving the yacht 
or turning in. If she is riding hard, feel if she is fast or 
dragging. 

9. Keep your hawsers or chains leading free of the bow- 
sprit rigging. Look out for chafing and freshen the 
hawse frequently. 

10. Never anchor on rocky bottom without a trip line. 



156 



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ON RIGGING 



"Then let his vessel feel the strain 
When wars the gale along the main; 
Strong in his trust of shroud and stay 
The seaman holds his leeward way, 
Spreads the reefd sail on buckling mast 
zAnd proudly dares the stormy blast. ' 



ON RIGGING 

WHEN we speak of a vessel's rigging we mean 
everything that supports the spars and is em- 
ployed in setting and trimming the sails. Rig- 
ging is divided into two classes — standing and running. 
The first is the portion that remains stationary, and whose 
office is to hold and strengthen the spars. The second is 
rove through blocks and moves; its office is to hoist, 
lower and trim the sails. 

Rigging has been much simplified of late years owing 
to the use of better proportioned fittings and stronger 
materials. The use of wire rope in place of hemp has 
reduced the size and weight of standing rigging, and 
what is of more importance, given a stable factor. 

In the old days when hemp was used, the shrouds 
and stays had to be constantly watched, as they varied in 
length every time there was a large change in the atmo- 
sphere. This was a frequent cause of dismasting. A ves- 

161 



I$2 

sel before leaving port would have her rigging set up in 
dry, cold weather; going to sea she would run into a 
warm region and everything would slack up. As it is 
now, the expansion and contraction of wire rigging is 
so small that a few turns of a screw will take it up or give 
it back. The only danger from wire is in setting it up 
too taut when at its full stretch, but this, in such length 
as go to make the shrouds of a yacht, is little to be feared. 
But the funnel guys of steam-yachts should be frequently 
looked to, as the expansion of the iron is liable to pull 
out the deck eye-bolts. 

I am not going to tell you how to rig a yacht, because 
you can learn that better and quicker by doing as the 
Yankee did who wanted to learn how to make clocks — 
took one apart and put it together again. Just strip a 
yacht, then re-rig her, and you will be in a fair way to 
learn all about it. What I am going to do, is to point 
out to you a few things in regard to rigging that may aid 
you in taking better care of what you have, and in mak- 
ing more secure and simple its use. 

The one axiom of the business is this, and I want you 
to engrave it on your memory, for the violation of its 
truth is the cause of nine out of ten breakdowns: The 



163 

weakest part of any shroud, stay or tackle is its strongest 
part. If you take two pieces of chain capable of lifting 
a ton, and join them with a piece of rope capable of lift- 
ing five hundred pounds, your combination is only as 
strong as the rope, and will only lift the smaller weight. 
This is why shrouds so frequently give way ; the wire rope 
is strong enough, the splice is firm, but the rigging- 
screw is only capable of bearing half the strain of those 
parts. Same with halliards; the tackle will lift a ton, 
the pin in the block or shackle not five hundred pounds. 
All parts of any tackle must be proportionately strong. 

The most unreliable portion of a yacht's rigging is the 
ironwork. In the first place, much of it is badly propor- 
tioned, and in the second place it is too light. There is 
no sense in making ironwork so light as is frequently 
done. The amount of weight saved, especially in those 
parts attached to the hull, is of no importance. Another 
source of weakness, especially in chain plates, is in mak- 
ing the straps too short ; not giving room for the fasten- 
ings. Chain plates should be carried right down and be 
secured to the frame. 

The kingpin of the whole structure erected above the 
deck of a yacht is the bobstay. If that goes you are 



164 

liable to lose everything, and it does go frequently. The 
principal cause of its parting is the over setting up of the 
headstays. Sometimes the bobstay itself is set up too 
taut, at other times the jib stay is strained. One way or 
another the spring of a spar is brought on it, and the 
vessel, getting into a head sea, begins to pitch ; this causes 
a back-lashing and away goes a bolt or a plate. 

Not long ago we were trying to insure a yacht that was 
to go South. The underwriters refused the risk on the 
ground that the yacht would get dismasted, and be 
obliged to put back or be lost altogether. At the same 
time they willingly took a risk on two small topsail 
schooners bound to the West Indies. We all sailed with- 
in four days. The yacht went through all right, but both 
the schooners lost their fore topmasts, bowsprits, jibbooms 
and other headgear, and had to return to New York for 
a refit. They ran into a high head sea, and the foremast, 
being set up on the bowsprit, the bobstay parted under 
the strain and away everything went. 

I have seen a small racing boat with a bronze rod of }& 
inch diameter for a bobstay, and this secured to the stem 
with two one-inch screws. You cannot make your bob- 
stay too strong or fasten it too securely. It was formerly 



1*5 

a custom to fit two bobstays, a regular one and a smaller 
one, called a preventer. This latter was set up slack of 
the heavier one. For many reasons this was a poor prac- 
tice, it being far better to put the strength of the two in 
one. In another chapter I have told you how to rig a 
tackle preventer for use when going to sea. 

Bowsprit shrouds should be made heavy, and car- 
ried as far aft as possible to get a spread. Care should 
be taken to set them up evenly. Foot ropes under a bow- 
sprit are unsightly, and are not needed unless the spar is 
long. If your jib stay is carried through the spar and 
made fast to the stem, it should render freely in the 
bee hole. Unless it does it is liable to strain the spar. 
I nearly lost a mast once by the jib stay sawing into the 
wood and sticking. It parted in a sea-way, and the shock 
broke the bobstay shackle. Every cruising boat should 
have two shrouds to a side. On pole-mast boats one of 
these should run to the hounds and the other to the 
masthead. Don't set them up to bands ; eye-splice and 
put them over the spar. You never can trust the eye in 
a band. The rigging screws should be just twice as 
heavy as what the average man will tell you to use. The 
screw is the weak part. Cutting the thread destroys the 



i66 

strength of the metal. The extra weight is nothing to 
speak of; the extra strength is everything. Although 
they are more trouble to care for I prefer lanyards. 

Always keep your shrouds set up bar-taut; the old 
notion that a mast should have play is a fallacy. The 
stiffer your spar the better it will carry sail. In our 
modern boats a mast should be kept plumb. From what 
I have seen all boats sail better with their masts plumb. 
Another thing, don't cut your sheer-poles too short ; they 
are so cut on half the boats I have seen ; the consequence 
is they are always working loose. 

On many yachts the rope used in the running rigging 
is too small. It may be plenty strong enough, but a man 
gets tired of picking up and pulling on shoestrings. This 
is a frequent fault with main-sheets ; another is not hav- 
ing enough parts. A sheet tackle should be powerful 
enough to give one man control of the sail at any time. 
Weak travelers is another defect. This should be doubly 
strong, as it is frequently used to tow or make fast to. 
Every boat should have a strong ringbolt on each side 
in the quarters for boom lashings, etc. 

There are plenty of good blocks and plenty of bad 
ones. The modern metal blocks are good, but should 



167 

be of a big passage, as the gear when wet is apt to jam 
in them. This is a fault with all blocks having small 
sheaves. The weak part of a block is either the pin or 
the shackle. 

On small boats a single topping lift is all that is 
needed, but on yawls and ketches, where the main boom 
is inboard and short, two lifts are better. Boats with 
heavy spars should have a jig fitted to the lift. Lazy 
jacks are useful on cruising boats, especially if you are 
sailing short handed, but they are a nuisance when reef- 
ing. The ends should be made fast in such a way as to 
allow of their being slacked up, but not so as to permit 
of their getting adrift. I have got into trouble several 
times through the lazy jacks getting adrift. The ends 
blew across the peak halliards, and fouled them in such 
way as to prevent the sail from coming down. If this 
happens at night when reefing you are liable to be in a 
fix. I may as well say here that the ends of all running 
gear should be made fast. 

If you have a pin-rail this is easily done. Take out 
the pin and slip the socket though the rope between the 
strands, shove it on the collar of the projection and put 
the pin back. If your halliards are belayed to cleats, marl 



1 68 

them to the cleat. At night or in a blow the crew will let 
go one halliard to pick up another, and away goes the 
end flying out. If it is dark it can't be found, as more 
than likely it is wrapped round a shroud or lift, or is 
flying out from aloft like a pennant. I have had some 
anxious times hunting the ends of gear of a dark, windy 
night. When sailing in the dark or in bad weather make 
the end of your mainsheet fast ; always keep a knot in it. 
Jib's sheet should be endless, running right round the 
cockpit. Then you can always find them, and the end 
won't wash overboard. 

It is the custom now to put bridles or spans on gaffs 
and booms in order to distribute the strain. They are 
good things if used in moderation, but it is extremely 
foolish to put a rig of this kind on a twenty-footer carried 
out in the lavish fashion of a cup defender. I have seen 
little boats knocking about with spans on the boom that 
would pretty nearly have held the Columbia's spar. Some 
of our designers have an especial fad for loading down 
boats with all kinds of gear, and seem to glory in bridling 
everything that offers the least excuse for such fittings. 
The first thing that a good racing man has to do when 



169 

he gets one of these boats is to strip off about half the 
stuff and change leads all round. 

Complicated running rigging is a nuisance ; it cannot 
be too simple so long as it is effective. The less strings 
you have to pull the quicker you can work. This is just 
as true on a cruiser as it is on a racer. A lot of line is 
also a nuisance round the decks ; a clear deck is a sailor's 
blessing. 

One of the things I have helped to simplify is the gear 
on spinnakers. Long ago I pointed out that this sail 
could be used on small boats without outhauls and lifts, 
and that without them the sail was easier set and easier 
taken in. This method of handling that sail has since 
been practiced on the majority of our racing craft. Half 
the spinnaker poles are too heavy for their leneth, and 
the sails too big to be effective in anything but extremely 
light weather. All gear belonging to the pole should be 
snap-hooked, so that it can be attached or detached at 
once. 

Snap-hooks and sister-hooks are excellent contriv- 
ances, but beware of them. They have a trick of giving 
out just at the wrong time, and are to blame for many a 



170 

lost spar. They should be extra large and strong if they 
are to be subjected to heavy and continued strains. 

All gear, especially the iron work, should be con- 
stantly examined, not only when at anchor, but while 
under way. Many men never look at their boat's gear 
from the time she is put overboard until she is hauled 
out. Here is a case that fell under my notice: A boat 
was being stripped for hauling out, when we noticed that 
her mast was shaky ; on examining the step it was found 
that the heel of the spar was just in it and no mere, al- 
lowing the mast to play. Taking her under the shears, 
we raised the spar, and found lying in the step a cold 
chisel that prevented the heel from dropping home. This 
beat had been sailed about all summer, and the owner 
admitted that he noticed something was wrong with the 
mast, but that he had never examined the step. Another 
time I was on a cutter that carried away her mast-head. 
When we examined the break it was found that the stick 
was competely rotted through. The damage was caused 
by hollowing of the wood above the upper band, which 
allowed the rain water to stand and soak into the grain. 
If I have a boat in charge I make it a duty to go aloft 
at least once a week when she is under way and take a 



i7i 

careful survey of all the ironwork, blocks and splices. I 
also examine the bowsprit rigging thoroughly. The 
ironwork should be sounded with a hammer or heavy 
knife blade, just as railroad men sound carwheels. Blocks 
should be looked to and kept well oiled. Turnbuckles 
should also be kept oiled, and if you are out in much 
rough water they should be covered with a false parcel- 
ing of painted canvas. If this is done they won't freeze, 
and when you want to tauten or slack the rigging you 
will be able to do so without using a lot of kerosene and 
hard twisting. 

On cruising boats with outboard booms reef-pendants 
for the two lower reefs are generally kept rove, but they 
are much of a nuisance. This can be obviated in a 
measure by. having them in two lengths, keeping one part 
in the sail and the other in the locker when not in use. 
If the sail is heavy a small tackle is handy. Such a 
tackle should be carried on all boats ; it saves a lot of 
hard labor, especially if you take ground and have to 
haul off. 




H 

h 

W 

& 
O 

o 

(a 

B 
& 
u 

< 



X 



ON STRANDING 



Home o'er a latent reef the hull impends, 
*And thundering on a marble crag descends; 
Her ponderous bulk the dire concussion feels, 
zAnd o'er upheaving surges wounded reels — 
zAgain she plunges! hark! a second shock 
Bilges the splitting vessel on the rock. 

— Falconer 



ON STRANDING 

THIS is a subject upon which I can pose as a master. 
If any man has been ashore more times than I 
have, I should like to meet him and spend an 
evening comparing notes. One of my favorite amuse- 
ments is to sail into places where a man of sense has no 
business to go: consequently my boat is continually be- 
ing hung up on rocks, shoals and bars. While this is 
not particularly good for the boat, it has done me no 
harm, as I have gathered a lot of knowledge and experi- 
ence which, you willing, I will spread before you. 

Yachts, unlike merchant vessels, are seldom damaged 
by taking ground. This is because, in proportion to 
their weight, they are extremely strong fabrics. A mer- 
chant vessel when loaded has little reserve buoyancy, 
and when she strikes, she hits hard ; but a yacht is almost 
as buoyant as an empty barrel, and unless she hits with a 
perpendicular portion, does so very lightly. 

Frequently when a yacht hits a rock it seems to those 

175 



176 

on board as if the end of things had come ; but when an 
examination is made it will be found that little harm has 
been done. 

I once struck a rock with a small sloop. It was blow- 
ing a strong breeze and considerable sea running. When 
she struck, the blow was terrific; it threw me over the 
wheel to land on my head in the fore end of the cockpit, 
and knocked the rest off their pins. The centerboard 
was driven clear up out of the case against the cabin roof, 
the sloop making a jump over the stone and into deep 
water on the other side. 

We all thought the boat must be badly damaged, but 
as she made no water, we turned round and worked her 
home. When she was hauled out, the only sign of the 
blow was a dent in the lead keel just deep and wide 
enough to hold a finger. 

Another time I was in a bulb-fin boat, racing, when 
she struck a rock. She was close-hauled and going like 
a scared cat. It felt like banging up against a stone wall, 
the shock sending us all flying forward. The damage 
done amounted to a bruised bulb and a slightly bent fin ; 
the hull was, so far as we could ascertain by superficial 
inspection, unhurt. 



J 77 

Metal-shod keels are undoubtedly a great protection, 
and a yacht that strikes fairly on her iron or lead will 
seldom be damaged to such an extent as to endanger her 
safety. I have known boats to be sunk by striking rocks, 
but they hit either the side of the bow or the bilge and 
stove in the plank. For this reason, if you find yourself 
going on a rock, always take it stem-to. By this means 
I jumped a rock in Wood's Hole that was six inches out 
of water, and landed all right on the other side. 

The most dangerous thing to do, yet the thing that is 
most natural to do, is to put the helm up or down with 
the hopes of escaping ; consequently your craft is carried 
on, and strikes broadside. This not only is liable to bilge 
her, but makes it far more difficult tO' get her off. It is 
especially dangerous if you go on with a weather wind 
or tide. 

Always remember that wounds in a hull are least 
dangerous at the ends, and most dangerous in the mid- 
dle body. If a boat is pierced in her head or tail you 
may be able to trim the leak out, or save her from sink- 
ing by stranding and jacking the leaky end up, but if she 
is pierced amidships you cannot get at the hole unless 
you haul completely out. I remember seeing a sand- 



178 

bagger that had torn the plank away from her stem 
saved from sinking by trimming, the crew raising her 
head by piling all the bags aft. 

Luckily for the navigator, the sea by constant washing, 
and nature by a covering of seaweed and slime, prepares 
the majority of rocks for his reception, so that if he 
strike the object fairly with sufficient way on, his craft 
will slide over. But sometimes he runs against a ragged 
reef, and then there is trouble. The reefs and lone rocks 
along our coast are generally worn smooth, and are not 
dangerous customers like the coral formations of warmer 
climes. One of the worst things to run on is a reef of 
small boulders, as you are liable to get one on either side 
just under the bilge. These places are the remains of a 
point or island, and are good places to fight shy of. The 
worst boats to take ground are flat-bottomed craft like 
sharpies ; when they go on they generally make a perfect 
job of it. They are bad things to strand on a sand-bar 
or flat, the bottom of the boat sucking like a leech to a 
turtle's hindquarter. Unless you can get the tide to lift 
one of this kind off, it is either jettison the ballast or dig 
out. A man who knocks about a sandy land in a sharpie 
should always carry a shovel with him. 



179 

The first rule of action upon stranding is to at once 
lower all sail. There is but one exception to this ; I will 
state it later. You cannot drive a vessel off ground with 
her sails (you may back her off) ; at least I never could. 
The reason oi this is that a boat under sail pressure 
drives down, and draws more water the harder you force 
her. Again, if you drive her off, or over bottom, with 
the sails, you are likely to damage the hull or break the 
rudder. 

After taking off sail run out a kedge against the wind 
or current, unless both are ahead ; then take it out the 
way you came in. Give it all the line you can; the 
straighter the pull the less likely that your anchor will 
come home. As soon as it is down, heave taut, and keep 
the vessel's stern to the sea, current or wind, whichever 
is most powerful This done, if on a rock, go below and 
see if she is making water. While you are doing this 
let the other hands sound round the craft to find how she 
lies. 

If she is not leaking, get all your beef on the hawser 
and heave away. Here is where a handy-billy or watch- 
tackle comes in. Sometimes you can use the windlass, 
but this is not as good as a tackle, because the hands 



i8o 



have to stand forward to work it, and you want all the 
weight aft. If she refuses to budge under the pull, go 
below, and if you have inside weight shift it aft. If she 
still refuses to start, get out everything weighty, and 
either lighter it or heave it over-side.- 

Sometimes you can start a boat off a rock by broaden- 
ing off the main-boom, and sending a man out on it to 
roll her. Before you do this be sure and set up the top- 
ping lift, and weather preventer if one is fitted. The 
principal thing is to keep a constant and firm strain on 
the hawser. 

If there is any roll on, get the hawser set up fiddle- 
string taut with the tackle, then place all hands so as to 
surge it sideways every time she lifts on the sea. If the 
boat is one with a deep false keel you can gain a few 
inches off the draught by careening her. This is done 
by taking an anchor off at right angles to her lay and 
setting up the hawser by any of the mast-head tackles, 
either jib or peak halyards. Never do this if there is any 
sea on, as it is liable to strain the hull or break the false 
keel. I don't believe it is much good, and do not recom- 
mend its practice except as a last call. 

Another plan which I found to work well when a boat 



i8i 

is stranded on a shelving bank of either mud or sand is 
to overhaul the throat halyards, and bend the gaff-block 
to a bight in the hawser, letting a tail of the hawser drop 
down from the block. Then set up hard on th.e "halyard, 
using the windlass or watch-tackle. This done, lot a 
man hang on the tail of the hawser, throwing his weight 
up and down so as to surge it, the rest taking in the slack. 
This makes the mast a lever to lift her, and if there is 
water under the stern she will surely start. 

In a boat with a deep sternpost and sloping keel you 
can sometimes do better by swinging it on its heel, and 
heaving off bow first, getting all your spare live weight 
out on the bowsprit to bring her by the head ; but it de- 
pends on where she is hardest fast, and how much weight 
you have to trim with. If she is fast aft of midships this 
plan will work, but if forward of that point it will not. 

The most frequent strandings are when trying to enter 
the mouths of creeks or rivers ; places beset with bars and 
flats. If the wind and tide are ahead you can easily get 
off, but if either is astern you are liable to be in a fix. 
If you strike carrying the tide and wind with you, down 
all sail instantly, lash the helm amidships, and get out 
the anchor and long warp. 



182 

The minute a vessel strikes under these conditions she 
will swing broadside-to, and drive up higher, at the same 
time the tide will pile the sand or silt round her. If you 
can hold her stern to the tide, the current will cut the 
sand away, and the swell will help you to pull her off. 

Now comes the only exception to the rule of taking in 
sail : If you are going into an inlet with a fair wind and 
head-tide, and take ground on a soft bar, keep your sails 
full and hold the boat's nose to the current. If you can 
keep her steady, which you can best do by getting all your 
spare life weight forward, the current will cut a passage 
for you. The most dangerous stranding is with a strong 
in-running tide and a stern swell. A boat under these 
conditions is liable to be hove over on her side and 
flooded. A small steamship was lost last winter in the 
Bristol Channel by an accident of this kind; she struck 
on a shoal, swung beam to the tide, and rolled completely 
over. 

Several power boats have been wrecked in the same 
manner, as from the narrowness of their beam they are 
very liable to roll over when caught broadside-to by a 
current. Another thing that often damages launches is 
leaving them where, when the tide falls, they are broad- 



i8 3 

side on a shelving bank. The water leaves them and they 
fall over ; the tide returns, and not having sufficient buoy- 
ancy to lift before it rises to their coamings they are 
flooded and sunk. 

Years ago, when I was a lad, a very fast and narrow 
steam launch was left by her crew on a shelving bank 
close to where we were anchored. When the tide dropped 
she fell over, and as her crew did not return we tried to 
save her, but the bottom was too soft to allow working 
on, and she filled at the flood. On the next ebb we 
bailed her out, and with a little engineering and a lot of 
labor got her righted up. 

We took two big joists and lashed them across the 
boat, but so poorly fitted was she with cleats and other 
things to make fast to that we had to bore holes in the 
deck to pass the lashing and secure them to the frame. 
The ends of the joists stuck out about fifteen feet on the 
high side. Under these ends we laid another timber, 
parallel to the boat's length, in the mud and ballasted it 
with stones and iron. Ta this timber we lashed two 
tackles, one from each joist. Then as the tide made we 
hove slowly down on them, and she righted up. 

If the bottom had been hard we could have parbuckled 



i 84 

her, but it was impossible to do it in the deep, soft mud. 
This boat had a high and heavy boiler, which made the 
work harder, as it levered her down. 

If you can float another boat alongside of a launch in 
this fix you can lift her by parbuckling, or you can do it 
from a dock if the wall is high and near enough. To do 
this, take a stout line, made fast, from the near side over 
the deck and right under the keel ; then lay your floating 
boat alongside as close as possible, and bend this line to 
the latter's throat halyards. Heave taut on it and belay. 

If possible get two lines, one forward and one aft, hav- 
ing separate tackles. As the tide makes keep heaving in 
the slack, letting your floating boat draw in sideways to 
the launch. This strain will aid the water in lifting, as 
the launch will have to rise with the floating boat. If the 
launch is very heavy or of scant beam, like the steam 
craft I mentioned, you had better use joists or spars to 
help the leverage. 

I once took a launch off a rock by this same plan, 
when hours of heaving on hawsers had failed to move 
her. Another plan is to lift a boat by lashing empty 
barrels to the side by passing slings under the keel. If 
the boat is neaped so that sufficient tide cannot be got 



"85 

to lift her, you can fill and sink the barrels, bunghole up ; 
then shorten up the slings and pump the barrels out with 
a hand-pump. This barrel trick is only performed when 
a boat is bilged and full of water. 

Let me say here that all small power boats that 
cruise in strange waters where the bottom is hard should 
carry either a screw or hydraulic jack, and a good stout 
piece of square timber. If you get aground in places 
where there is little or no rise of the tide you have some- 
thing to stant in the wrecking business with. A jaciv and 
timber are also useful if anything happens to the wheel 
and you want to get the stern raised. 

To show the danger of forcing a boat off a rock let me 
cite one instance: A 50-foot sloop of the old flat-floored 
centerboard model struck on a stone when going free 
with a moderate wind. The sailing master kept his sails 
up, and with this pressure and a warp dragged her over 
and off the rock bow first. She had no sooner gone 
clear than she filled and sank. 

When floated and clocked it was found that she had a 
hole in her bilge big enough for a dog to crawl through. 
The first blow had started a butt; this caught, and in 
dragging over the plank was bent back and ripped away 



i86 

from the frames. Had he taken in sail, and pulled her off 
stern first, she would have floated long enough to have 
got into harbor. 

Having considered accidental stranding, let us now 
consider voluntary stranding — that is, the running of 
a vessel ashore to save the vessel or the life of her crew. 
Let us suppose that you are caught on a lee shore, and 
for some reason cannot claw off. You are bound to go 
ashore anyhow, and in order to give the boat and people 
a chance decide to run in and strand her. 

If the shore under your lee is rock I can do nothing 
for you. Your only chance is to pick out an opening 
or cleft and drive her in, and the minute she strikes jump 
for hard land. Such places are usually to be found on 
the rocky shores of our coast, but if the land is steep-to 
and sheer-faced, there is little hope for the boat or her 
people. 

There are two kinds of sandy shores on which you 
may have to strand your vessel— the gradual slope and 
the steep slope. The former is by far the more danger- 
ous, as the broken water extends some distance from the 
beach. 

In running in breaking water — in fact, in running in 



i8 7 

all heavy seas — the rule for safety is this: Let the wave- 
crest pass you, not carry you. If you can hold the boat 
back, so that the wave-crest will split ait her stern and 
rush by on each side, the boat will travel in safety. This 
is why it is dangerous in heavy water to carry sail when 
running. Many men do it for fear of pooping, but there 
is far less danger of pooping than there is tripping or 
being brought by-the-lee. Fore-and-aft canvas, particu- 
larly sails laced to booms, are bad things to run under; 
anything in the shape of a square sail is much better. 
Hundreds of vessels have been lost by running under a 
press of sail — probably ten times as many as have been 
destroyed by pooping. 

Now if you are obliged to strand on a flat beach, keep 
your vessel's stern to the swell and moving as slowly 
as possible. The best thing to do is to tow a hawser astern, 
or a small sail. This will check her way, and also prevent 
the sea swinging her stern round. Watch her closely 
as the sea strikes under the stern, and check the desire to 
broach with the helm. She can also be aided by having 
hands on a small jib or staysail sheet, and backing this 
sail either on one side or the other, as the threatened 
sheer requires. Get your weights out of the bow and 



i88 

keep her trimmed a bit by the stern. The idea is to 
have her strike bottom on her whole keel-length, and not 
on the forefoot. 

Here is where the luck comes in. If she strikes with 
her heel first and her head raised on a sea, you will 
probably land well up on the beach, but if she strikes 
with her forefoot first and her stern up in the air you 
will land — well, only good fortune can save you. 

I have seen fishing boats beached in this way in heavy 
surf, the crews dropping an anchor and checking the 
craft until the right moment, and then slacking away 
smartly. In this way they rode the boat in on the back 
of successive seas. With sharp-stern craft this can be 
done with safety, but I would not care to try it with a 
square stern or long after-overhang craft. 

I would advise the young seaman to take a small skiff 
or dingey to a beach where there is a small sea breaking 
and practice making-off and landing through the surf. 
He had better dress in a bathing suit, and try the game 
when the water is warm. In a day or two of this work 
you will learn more than I could teach you in seventy 
volumes. 

If the beach is steep-to, the sea breaking" but a few rods 



1 89 

from the strand, you can stand in under good way, keep- 
ing her end-on until close to. The instant you feel that 
she is going to strike put your helm over and bring her 
almost broadside to the sea. The wave rising under her 
weather bilge will throw her sideways on the beach, and 
each succeeding sea will drive her higher up. 

In running at any time in heavy water use oil, letting 
it drip from either bow. With a good thick slick in your 
wake you will be less likely to be washed by ithe crests. 

But better than all these directions is the advice to 
keep off rocks, shoals and shores. Don't go into places 
unknown to you unless you have a good chart or your 
lead going ; especially keep away from dangerous places 
when the wind is brisk, the sea heavy or the tide strong 
An ounce of precaution in this matter is worth tons of 
cure. 

Nine out of ten strandings or strikings are the result 
of carelessness or recklessness. The only thing a man is 
justified in hitting is a wreck or a lone rock ; these things 
the lead will not announce, and they are frequently un- 
charted. Old familiar "didn't know it was there," should 
more properly be "didn't know I was there." Rocks 
don't move, but you would think they did to hear many 



190 

yachters explaining how it happened. I have hit a good 
many rocks in my day, but don't believe I could prove 
an alibi except in one case, when the boat ran on a stone 
that nobody had ever heard of before. We examined the 
stranger and found it was a rock sure enough, but where 
it came from or how it got there no man knew, but all 
hands stood ready to swear that they had sailed over the 
exact spot many times and never touched anything. 

I don't doubt but what there are thousands of un- 
charted rocks over which and alongside of which vessels 
constantly pass but do not happen to strike. Like the 
celebrated Daedalus Rock, they may lurk for years in 
the course of commerce, until the unfortunate boat comes 
sailing along that is destined to win immortality by strik- 
ing and unmasking the danger. But it is not worth while 
to worry over these vigias while there are plenty of well- 
known dangers to keep the navigator busy. So proceed 
fearlessly but cautiously, trusting in your lead and chart, 
and hug and play with weather shores as much as you 
please, but give the lee ones a wide berth. 

Before entering an inlet, creek or river month, if you 
are not familiar with it, lay-off or anchor outside. Send 
in the dingey with a lead or pole, and sound for the deep- 



I 9 I 

est place on the bar ; when this is found, let the dingey lie 
there or on a line inside of it to guide you in. You may 
lose a few minutes by so doing, but by the delay may save 
yourself hours of hard labor and anxiety. 

Never try to run inlets when a heavy swell is on ; the 
open sea is far more merciful than a bar at such times. 
It is especially dangerous to attempt such places in small 
power boats. 



IN a second book now in preparation I shall talk to 
you upon sails, ballast, sea-anchors, cruising, rough 
water, weather and other subjects of interest to 
the young mariner. I will be pleased to have my 
readers suggest themes the exposition of which would 
interest them, and if I am competent to discuss the 
subject I will be only too glad to do so. 



YACHTSMAN'S LIBRARY 



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Technical and m 

Practical W 



Technical books are tools. No man can 
excel in a trade unless he has good tools; 
neither can a man expect to excel in a sport 
unless he has at hand, ready for reference, 
a good collection of books relating to its 
theory and practice. 

We have in this list, gathered for the first time, 
all the obtainable books on the subject of yachting 
and its kindred sports. 

The yachtsman will find here those books which 
are invaluable as guides to a higher knowledge of 
yachting, and which no yachtsman's library is complete 
without. 

Any book not here listed, if in print, we will 
obtain, no matter in what language or land it is printed. 

Send postal for complete catalogue. 

THE RUDDER PUB. CO. 

9 Murray St. New York, U. S. A. 



YACHTSMAN'S LIBRARY 



Books for the 
Yachtsman's Library 

TECHNICAL AND PRACTICAL. J 

Amateur Sailing. By Biddle $1.50 

Amateur Sailor. By Alex. I . McLoed 50 

Boat Sailer's Manual. By E. F. Qualtrough 1.50 

Canoe Handling. ByC. B. Vaux 1.00 

Corinthian Yachtsman 1.50 

Canvas Canoes— How to Build Them. By Field 50 

Canoe Cruising and Camping. By P. D. Frazer ....1.00 

Canoe and Camera. By Steele 1.00 

Canoe and Boat Building for Amateurs. By Stephens .2.00 

Canoe and Camp Cookery. By Seneca 1.00 

Electrical Boats and Navigation. Illustrated 2.50 

Elements of Navigation . By Henderson 1.00 

Fore and Aft Seamanship 50 

Handbook of Naval Gunnery. By Radford 1.50 

How to Swim. By Capt. Dalton 1.00 

How to Build a Racer for $50 1.00 

How to Build a Skip Jack 1 .00 

Illustrated Coast Pilot By N. L. Stebbins $1; by mail 1.25 

Ropes, their Knots and Splices .50 

Log of Yachts 50 

Model Engines and Small Boats. By Hopkins 1.25 

Model Yachts. By Grosvenor . .2.00 

Manual of the Canvas Canoe. By Webb 1.25 

Marine Engineers— How to Become One. By E. G-. Constantino 2.50 

Navigation for Yachtsmen. By V. J. English, R. N" 7.50 

^ Pratical Boat Building. By Nelson 1.00 

Practical Boat Building and Sailing. By Nelson, Kemp and Davies. .3 00 

Practical Boat Sailing. By Davies 2 00 

Supplements to Small Yachts. By Stephens 4 00 

Sails and Sailmaking 1 25 

Steam Yachts and Launches. By Kunhardt 3.00 

Sailing Alone Around the World. By Capt. Joshua Slocum 2.00 

Small Yachts— Their Design and Construction. ByC. R. Kunhardt... 10. 00 

Torpedoes and Torpedo Vessels By Armstrong 1.25 

The Pilot. How to do the work, a Text Book for Navigators 1 .00 

The Rudder— Volumes 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 each 3.50 

Yacht Etiquette. By Patterson 1.00 

Yachting Wrinkles. By A. J. Kenealy 1.00 

Yacht Designing. By Biddle 1.00 

Yacht and Boat Sailing. By Dixon Kemp 10.00 

Yacht Architecture, Designing and Building. By Dixon Kemp 16.80 



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YACHTSMAN'S LIBRARY 



15 

a 
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a 
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a 
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5 
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i How to Build a 
Motor Launch 



[51 

5 

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3 

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5 

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By C. D. Mower 
Designing Editor of The Rudder 

A simple and practical work in every de- 
tail, showing how to construct a launch hull 
suitable for use with any description of motor. 

Each step of the work is clearly and thoroughly ex- 
plained, both by text and drawings, so that a man who has 
never even seen a boat built will have no difficulty in j= 



raj 



understanding the process. 

The author, a self-taught boat builder, thoroughly ^ 

comprehends what a novice does not know, and is, there- lH] 

fore, able to point out the hard places, and to show the gI 

amateur builder how to get over or around them. [GJ 

In the after part of the book are given the designs of [q] 

several launches, from 1 8 to 50 feet in length. rj: 

The whole is heavily illustrated, and is the most 
complete treatise on launch building yet published. 



151 



m 

l^HE R UDDER P UB. CO. 15 

9 Murray St. New York, U. S. A. f[3 

I 
Bound in cloth, price $1 p 

Same size and style as " How to j^ 

Build a Skipjack" and " How to [« 

Build a Racer for $50" \z 

ja 



YACHTSMAN'S LIBRARY 



On Marine Motors & 
Motor Launches 

A handy book for yachtsmen 

By E. W. Roberts, M. E. 

A reprint in a handy form of Mr. Robert's 
instructive and interesting Rudder articles. 
In it the author explains what a gasoline motor 
is, and points out in understandable language 
the difference between the types, and shows 
what is a good motor and what is a bad one. 

He gives valuable information to the buyer, and also 
explains how to run a motor, how to prevent breakdowns, 
and how to remedy defects. 

To the novice, the chapter on gasoline is alone worth 
the price of the book, as it explains the properties of that 
fluid, and the proper manner in which to handle it so as 
to prevent accidents. 

No motor man should be without a copy of this book; 
it will save him time, trouble and expense. 

THE RUDDER PUB. CO. 

9 Murray St. New York, U. S. A. 

Bound in cloth, price $i 



YACHTSMAN'S LIBRARY 




HOW to BUILD a SKIPJACK 

Complete plans and directions for building a 19-ft. sloop, the material 
for which will cost less than $100 ; and pictures of numerous boats that 
have been built in all parts of the world from these plans. Bound in 
blue cloth and gold, uniform with "How to Build a Racer for $50." 



price ONE DOLLAR postpaid 



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J-JOW TO glJILD A J^ACER FOR $50 




SIMPLEST, safest and fastest boat that can be built. The working plans are such that 
a boy can build from them. The plans were published in 1898, and since thensome 
500 boats have been built from them. The book has numerous illustrations of boats in and 
after construction, and also gives experience of builders in allpartsof the world. Blue cloth 
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The Rudder 




The policy of The Rudder is to give to 
yachtsmen a thoroughly practical periodical, 
dealing with the sport of yachting in all its 
phases, and especially to furnish them with 
the designs and plans of vessels adapted to their 
wants in all localities. 

In each issue is a design of a sailing or power craft, and at 
least four times a year a complete set of working drawings is giv- 
en, so that the unskilled can try a hand at building with a certainty 
of making a success of the attempt. 

In the last two years over 500 boats have been built from de- 
signs printed in the magazine, and in almost every case have 
given satisfaction. 

Outside of the strictly practical, the magazine has always a 
cargo of readable things in the way of cruises and tales, while its 
illustrations are noted for their novelty and beauty. 

The editor desires to increase the size of the magazine 
and to add to its features. In order to do this it is necessary that 
it be given the hearty support of all who are interested in the sport. 
The cost of a subscription, $2 a year rolled or I2.50 mailed flat, is as 
low as it is possible to make it and furnish a first-class publication, 
and he asks yachtsmen to subscribe, as in that way they can mater- 
ially assist him in keeping the magazine up to its present standard 
of excellence. 



THE RUDDER PUB. CO. 

9 Murray St. New York, U. S. A. 




YACHTSMAN'S LIBRARY 



Vol. XI, The Rudder 



FOR THE YEAR 1900 






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It contains 460 pages, 24 full-page supplements, 500 other illustrations, over 100 designs 
and plans. Bound in blue cloth ; gold top and lettering. 

Price, postpaid, $3.50; 15 Shillings; 80 Francs 



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